Better to Have Loved
by VGiselleH
Summary: A tragedy prevented in the past gives the Hamato clan a chance for happiness and safety it was never allowed before, but completely changes the turtles’ lives and their concept of "family". Destiny however can not be changed, nor denied it’s sacrifices.
1. The Woman

**A/N: My new year's resolution: finally put this thing online after meddling with it for two years already!**

**This is sort of an AU based on the information given in the episode "Tale of Master Yoshi" . The first few chapterlings are actually all part of the prologue, but it was simply too long to post as a single chapter (in my opinion anyway). You'll probably be able to tell by the chapter names when the prologue has finished and the story starts ^_^ Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the TMNT or any of the other characters belonging to the TMNT franchise. I did create the character of Mashimi however, but not his name.**

The Woman

"Mashimi, no!"

Quickly Tang Shen hurried over and reached out with a hand, "Don't do it like that," she continued, her voice gentle even as she gave the command, and kneeled down on the grass, not appearing to care about her dress, or anything else, but the little boy in front of her. Carefully she placed her hands around his.

"Gently, Mashimi, or you will hurt Splinter."

Guiding his young pudgy hands she changed the boy's hold on the grey rodent so he could carry him more comfortably. Satisfied that the rat was no longer in danger of being either squeezed or dropped, the woman smiled and gently stroked the rodent with one hand, and placed the other on the black hair of her young son, "There you go. You see, Mashimi, he looks a lot happier already."

Absently patting a few stray blades of grass of off her dress while standing up again, Tang Shen felt like she was in heaven with her son beaming a smile back up at her. With pride she saw how he was intent on making sure he would not hurt the rat in his hands while walking forwards once more. Falling in at his side she gazed down at the little black haired head bowed in concentration for a few moments, then looked ahead at the road at the edge of the grassy field they were walking on. It had become a daily outing for the two of them to come to the park in the morning with their pet, Splinter, and let the rat run free while Mashimi played.

Tang Shen had always been amazed by Splinter's intelligence, and not just because he could copy martial arts movements from his cage. Even now she was convinced he was showing more patience with the child than a normal rat ever would. She'd been meaning to look up how old rats could get to be, but somehow never actually got around to doing it. Deep down inside she knew it was because she feared the answer she might find. He was a part of her family, had been with her since before her previous family fell apart. To lose him to old age would be like having to accept the loss of the others as well.

A giggle snapped her out of her gloomy thoughts, and she looked down to see Splinter's whiskers tickling her son's hands with their speedy movements. Though she smiled, she felt alarmed he might drop the rat, and quickly moved to cup the boy's hands with her own, "We are almost at the edge of the park, my son, I shall carry Splinter the rest of the way home now."

Reluctantly the boy let go of his little friend, pouting a bit as he looked up at him in his mother's hands, then grabbed a good handful of her white dress as they kept walking. Careful as her son was, he was still a boy who had only just celebrated his second birthday. He could not always control his movements with precision yet, and was still developing and learning his own strength. She would not allow Splinter to get hurt during innocent play. Only during their trips to the park, and while she was watching them the whole time, did she allow it. She could only hope Splinter would live long enough for Mashimi to grow older and more responsible so he could handle the rat properly and with care.

She now gently held the furry little creature in one hand close to her chest, where he could comfortably watch the city around them, and held her son's hand with the other as they made their way through the busy streets of New York. Carefully she made her way through the crowds, always looking both ways before crossing a street, and making sure she would not get lost. It had been a couple of years ago when she had first set eyes upon this city, and she had been amazed by the difference with her own hometown. But as time went by, it had mostly been the people that stood out as different to her. And while she didn't exactly feel unwelcome, she did feel different. As she learned the language spoken here things got better however, and she even made a few friends. But even now she still couldn't get over the difference between her old and new home.

"Mommy, look!"

Startled out of her thoughts at once by both her son's voice and the sudden honking of a truck's horn, Tang Shen gasped as she saw a vehicle heading straight towards a man crossing the street, a man who was obviously blind by the way he held his cane. Without thinking about it she tightened her hold on the little hand in her own, and at the same time on the little furry body in her other, her eyes glued to the horrible scene she knew was about to happen. Already she started to twist her body so she could shield her son's eyes, so he would not have to witness such a horrible event at such a young age.

But it didn't happen.

Even as Tang Shen moved to protect her son's mind, a young man on the sidewalk had moved as well to protect the oblivious blind man by shoving him out of the way. Seeing this she didn't even notice the blond boy that got bumped in the process, nor the glass bowl that slipped from his grasp and smashed on the ground, releasing it's contents on the road. A little gasp of surprise escaped her as she saw how both men made it safely to the other side of the road, the truck swerving along until it came to a stop as well. Still staring, Tang Shen watched the driver get out and hurry back to see if anybody was hurt. Her heart then still pounding she felt relieved the accident she had been sure was about to happen had been avoided.

Letting out a breath she started to form the decision to walk over to the two men, to congratulate the younger on his heroic move, when suddenly a sharp tug on her hand made her forget all about it. Quickly glancing down she saw she was no longer holding Mashimi's hand. Gasping she saw the little boy rushing towards the road, his little legs holding up at this speed, but not only making his progress far from smooth, they were also threatening to make him fall down at any moment. With all the rushing people around them, and the speeding cars just ahead on the road, Tang Shen felt sure she was about to lose her mind in a sudden new terror. Gasping, and then shouting something even she wasn't sure of what, she bolted after her little boy, her hands stretched out in front her to grab him at the first possible moment.

Mashimi's face was turned towards the edge of the sidewalk, and as he reached it he came to a clumsy halt, and would have toppled forwards in front of an approaching car had his mother not grabbed him at the back of his clothes at that exact moment. Letting out a cry of protest the boy was snatched into her arms where she held him close, mumbling half a dozen different things incoherently at him, her mind only focusing on the possibility of him having gotten hurt if she hadn't gotten there in time, not even hearing the honking of the car that sped past them.

He tried to wriggle out of her grasp, mumbling something about "green" and "little". It was then that she realized that she was holding him with both her hands, her arms wrapped around him to keep his little body safely close to her own.

"Splinter?"

For the third time in a short period of time she felt alarmed, and quickly searched the ground around her. She must have dropped him when she saw Mashimi run away. She was sure she had still been holding on to him when the accident with the truck and the blind man was prevented. Or had she? Suddenly unsure Tang Shen started to run around with her son in her arms, her eyes on the ground as she weaved her way through the crowd of people rushing around her. He could easily get trampled on! If she did not find him right now, he could get lost in a sea of people like this!

Feeling tears well up in her eyes Tang Shen kept calling out Splinter's name, her eyes darting around desperately. She could not lose him anymore than she could lose her son, she had to find him!

Suddenly she became aware of her son tugging a stray lock of her long black hair, and looked down at him in her arms, and realized he'd been calling to her.

"Mommy! Spinta! The'!" As he pointed with a pudgy finger at the same spot he'd been running towards, she looked over just time to see her little furry friend dart over the edge of the sidewalk and out of her view.

"Splinter!" she shouted, not noticing several people turning their heads at her curiously.

Quickly she ran back and peered down where she had seen the rat disappear, hoping she wouldn't find a flattened little body with a tire mark on it. Instead she saw a small stream of water rushing down a storm drain below her. Relieved, yet at the same time feeling new worries flood her, she crouched down, trying to see inside. However it was obvious that it was very dark inside, and she would not fit through the opening, nor be able to reach the ground if she tried to put her arm in.

"Splinter! Are you there!"

Even as she called she knew it was foolish. He was a rat, he couldn't answer back, and even if he did squeak, she wouldn't be able to hear it over the noise around her. Desperate she looked around her, searching for something that would help her, holding little Mashimi close to her the whole time.

There was nothing. She couldn't do anything. Biting her lower lip she called Splinter's name again, knowing it was foolish to expect the rat to be able to climb out the way he had gone in. Even if there hadn't been so much water, he'd never be able to jump this high. Fighting back a sob she tried not to think of the water rushing below her into the storm drain. If Splinter had fallen into that, then surely he'd been swept away by now, far away from her.

"Oh Splinter, please don't leave me…"

For maybe another minute Tang Shen remained where she was, deep in thought. Then she finally slowly got up, still staring with some careful hope towards the opening, before finally turning away.

"Mommy? Spinta?"

She couldn't answer Mashimi's plea as he tried to shift his body to look at where the rat had disappeared, and hugged him closer instead. She hadn't given up hope yet though, but she had to accept that she couldn't do anything herself right now, she had to get help and hope Splinter would be alright.

Quickly she rushed home, at times switching to a sprint in her hurry. If time made the difference between Splinter being found alive and well or being lost forever, then she would make sure to turn things in her favor. It was a matter of trust she decided, trust that her family would not have to face another loss so soon again. Destiny could not be that cruel, could it? Already she had lost a brother, the one she had named her son after. And in a way she had lost the only father she had ever known. She had even lost her country, though this she had done willingly for the man she loved. She could not accept another loss. She could not be losing Splinter, especially not like this! She would never forgive herself is she did. These thoughts seemed to give her feet wings as she rushed back home, her mind desperately repeating over and over that all would be alright.


	2. The Man

The man

Faster than she had ever before Tang Shen opened the front door to her home and moved inside, quickly slamming it closed behind her.

"Yoshi!"

He had once told her years ago that he must come here to this country. That it was his destiny to follow the people he served wherever they went.

"Yoshi, are you home??"

And she had told him that if that was so, then it was her destiny to follow him here, and wherever else he went.

"Yoshi!"

A door opened as she ran into the living room, and a black haired, Asian man came out, concern visible on his face as he walked towards her. He was wearing his training clothes, which shouldn't surprise her as he had just walked out of his dojo.

"Tang Shen! What is wrong?"

She put Mashimi down before grabbing her husband by his shoulders, the panic she'd been fighting on her way home bubbling to the surface now, "Yoshi, it's Splinter!"

"Spinta, daddy!" Mashimi chimed in, clinging to his father's pant leg.

"He ran from me, he ran away, into a hole where I could not follow! I lost him, Yoshi! I lost Splinter!" Words came tumbling out, and with that tears sprang into her eyes, quickly flooded over, and spilled down her cheeks as she started to sob quietly.

Yoshi pulled her closer, and let one of his hands rest on his son's head who was making sounds of distress now at seeing his mother like this. Tang Shen tried to rally her thoughts, reminding herself that time was important right now. Taking a few deep breaths, forcing herself to calm down, she closed her eyes for a few moments before pushing herself away from Yoshi's embrace. This wasn't the time to break down, nor the time for comfort. Splinter's life might be at stake!

Quickly she told Yoshi what had happened, urging him to change his clothes at the same time. It didn't take her long to tell what had happened as he quickly got dressed, stressing the risk of the water carrying the rat away. He let her talk and explain without interruption, silently nodding now and then to show he was listening, his face serious and intent.

Feeling her heartbeat like a clock ticking down precious minutes Tang Shen rushed to the woman next door, who was one of her closest friends, and breathlessly asked her to watch Mashimi while they were gone. The woman seemed startled, but then quickly assured her she would take care of the boy. With a curious look on her face the woman watched as Yoshi also rushed outside, then saw the couple go down the street at a fast pace. Shaking her head she finally carried the young boy in her arms back into her house, wondering what was going on with her friend's family this time, and closed the door behind her.

Soon Tang Shen and Yoshi were rushing down the streets of New York, not really standing out all that much from all the other rushing people around them. Tang Shen found her way back to the storm drain without any trouble, and pointed it out to her husband. She watched him study the opening, one hand on his chin, the other on the elbow. Only now did she realize that she had no idea how he could do anything more than she could have done. He was bigger than she was, he would never fit through the opening, how could he find Splinter down there?

But before her last bit of hope could be extinguished, Yoshi beckoned her over. To her surprise she saw determination on his face, and the promise of a plan. Hope blossomed.

"Come, this way!" he said urgently, yet keeping his voice low for some reason, and took her arm as he guided her away from the road and towards an alley. "It is not allowed for people without clearance to come here, but it is the only way for us to get down there," he explained while guiding her deeper into the alley.

Curious Tang Shen followed him, wondering what he meant. As he came to a stop she still didn't understand, nor when he crouched down and started to pry a dirty round metal covering from the ground. It wasn't until he managed to get it up and shoved it away to reveal an entrance that she realized that it had covered a manhole leading to the sewers! For a moment she felt revulsion, and it must have been clear on her face, as Yoshi suggested she wait for him here. But then she remembered seeing Splinter go over the edge of the sidewalk, and with new determination took the few steps that separated her from the sewer entrance.

"I will come with you. Two pairs of eyes can see more than one."

Smiling before he nodded, Yoshi then went down first, helping his wife once she followed after him.

It was dark down here however, and neither of them had brought any kind of light with them. But even as Tang Shen started to suggest they go back to get a flashlight, she felt her husband take her hand and guide her along. Closing her mouth again she smiled in silence, remembering his training. Yoshi didn't need light, ninja moved in the shadows after all.

As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, Tang Shen could vaguely see where she was going, though she continued to keep a tight hold of her husband's hand, and relied on his guidance through the darkness. Thankfully it was just a short distance to get back to where the water fell down through the storm drain, she had been able to hear the sound of falling water from the moment Yoshi placed the metal back over the sewer opening. The narrow opening above them now provided them with much more light as well, and Tang Shen scanned their surroundings rapidly, hoping to see a small grey figure moving around. But she didn't.

Concerned she halted her frantic search to look back up at Yoshi, and found that he was simply staring in one direction only. Following his gaze she saw some broken glass.

"What is that?"

Apparently startled by her voice he glanced back at her, then pointed at the broken glass. It appeared to have been a small container. He beckoned her over, so she did, and kneeled as he did to get a better look at it. The letters "TCRI" could be read on one side, and it tickled her memory, but she could not place it. She saw a green liquid-like substance around it, it must be what had been inside. But what made her look closer were the little droplets of the green substance a little further away. Saying they looked like little paw prints would be asking a bit much of the imagination, but they did seem to be forming a more or less straight line. And it was heading deeper into the sewers.

Confused she stared at Yoshi, and found a similar look on his face.

"Do you think those tracks belong to Splinter?" she asked him anyway. He took a few moments to reply, and Tang Shen didn't know what to think of that.

"It looks like it dripped off of something. That could mean Splinter might have walked through this green ooze and left a trail behind him."

He said it reasonably, confidently, and yet Tang Shen knew he was trying to avoid taking away her hope. And he was right, anything could have walked through this ooze. Any other rat living in the sewers. Yet it was their only clue right now.

Splinter was no longer here, so he must have moved, and this trail was their only hope of finding him. Because if he had fallen into the water instead, then they would never be able to trace him back again. The green trail just had to belong to Splinter! Setting her jaw Tang Shen tried to make it so, simply by believing it was.

"Lets follow it."

Smiling Tang Shen sharply nodded her head once, happy and relieved he had spoken those words. She would not stop searching until she had either found her beloved Splinter, or found evidence that would convince her she would never have him back in her arms once more. Taking her husband's hand she followed him into the darkness, deeper into the sewers, and hopefully to the missing part of their little family. Just because Splinter wasn't human, didn't mean they wouldn't do anything to try to get him back. After all, when one knew about and lived with Utroms, what did being of a different species really matter anymore?


	3. The Rat

The Rat

Silently Tang Shen closed the door behind her, bowed her head and closed her eyes for a few moments, and simply breathed in and out a few times, her hand still on the doorknob. Everything was alright she told herself. She had washed the sewer smell off of her, Mashimi was sleeping in his own bed, and Yoshi was waiting for her in their bedroom. The nightmare that had started this morning was finally over.

Taking a final deep breath she opened her eyes and raised her head once more, composed. Splinter was home again. Their little family was complete once more.

Her hand slid off of the doorknob to her son's bedroom as she moved towards her own, her eyes intent on the closed door she was now slowly approaching. All she had to do was tell herself everything was alright again and then maybe it really would be. Concentrating on this she slowly reached out a hand to open the door, then with a final swift motion she turned the handle and took a step into the room. Her eyes immediately started darting around, no matter how she tried to appear calm and collected.

Her gaze finally fell on her husband sitting on their bed, twisted sideways so his back was towards her. At the sound of her entry however he calmly turned his head to look at her and after a momentary inspecting glance, smiled. Instead of making her feel better it made her feel nervous all over again. Clasping her hands together in front of her throat she approached him, her eyes sliding off of his face and towards their bed. His body obscured her view, but she already knew what she would see even if her mind cried against it.

Yoshi reached for her, pulled her closer and she let herself fall at his side on the bed, a little sound escaping her that was half gasp, half sob. She could not lie to herself that all was alright when the contrary evidence was literally staring her in the face like this.

Splinter, her dear little friend and companion, the grey little being she considered to be a part of their family laid on the bed before her. The rat blinked at her, his whiskers shifting vigorously for a moment, then he smiled at her hesitantly.

Smiled.

Her pet rat was smiling at her.

Her _giant_ pet rat was smiling at her.

Smiling and staring at her with those shining dark eyes she knew so well, yet seemed so different at the same time now. Big dark eyes that held more than just trust and curiosity when they looked at her. Intelligence lurked in those dark pools now, she could see it.

"Oh Splinter…" Tang Shen choked, raising a hand to cover her mouth, "What happened to you…?"

She felt Yoshi place an arm around her, but she couldn't take her eyes off of Splinter. If he stood on his hind paws he would as tall as Mashimi now. Moving slowly the giant rat placed a paw closer to them from where he laid in the middle of the large bed, hesitation in the movement, his eyes never leaving hers, a pleading look in them. Almost surprising herself Tang Shen didn't pull back, but instead slid her own hand a little closer over the bedcover to him. It was just a little distance, but it was closer than she had been to Splinter since they had found him in the sewers.

Interpreting the movement as encouragement the rodent's smile grew a bit more confident and took another step closer, his eyes still pleading however. It was his gaze that captured Tang Shen. Her mind tried to tell her to fear this freak, but her heart sang of love for her little friend. Biting her lower lip as Splinter took a few more little steps closer to them she finally leaned forwards, her hand shifting and welcomed his clumsy rush towards her. Using both arms now she embraced the large rat as he huddled against her, then lowered her face into his fur.

"Oh my Splinter…" she spoke softly, her voice no longer sounding shocked but relieved now. Relieved at last.

"I do not understand what happened, but this canister, I believe it will explain more. Splinter was covered in whatever was inside of it."

Finally Yoshi had spoken up, and Tang Shen looked at him, her arms still holding tightly on to Splinter as he now perched on her lap, his front paws on her shoulders like a dog would do. He too turned his head to look up at Yoshi.

"Canister?" she asked confused. Yoshi pointed at something on a chair in the corner of their bedroom. Spotting it Tang Shen recognized the item from the sewer, it had held the green substance that had eventually led them to Splinter. Not understanding she looked back at her husband and gave a shrug.

"Did you not see what it says?" he asked her.

"TCRI, I saw it and it reminds me of something, but I do not know what," she replied truthfully.

Not answering Yoshi instead got up off of the bed and walked towards the closet. He opened it and shifted through the clothing for a few moments before pulling out a folded blue overall. Frowning Tang Shen looked at it, her mind searching for a moment before she remembered what it was. As Yoshi unfolded the garment her memory clicked even before her eyes fell on the initials on the breast pocket. She should have remembered, she had cleaned and ironed that particular piece of clothing often enough.

"The Utroms!"

Yoshi nodded at her, folding the overall back up –untidily Tang Shen noted absently- and put it back in the closet before coming back to her. Splinter poked his head up at him, his whiskers once more moving madly for a moment. Yoshi gave him a weak smile in return, then carefully placed a hand on the rat's head. Splinter closed his eyes at the gesture, seeming to enjoy it.

"TCRI is the company they use as a cover here in New York," Yoshi began but Tang Shen was nodding impatiently at him. Now that she remembered she did not need the reminder. The Utroms used this company as a cover for their actual intentions, namely finding a way back to their own planet. The technology they used was very advanced and the things they did went beyond her comprehension, but none of that interested her right now except for one thing:

"Can they make Splinter better?"

Yoshi heavily sat back down on the bed, rubbing his neck and shrugged this time.

"I have no idea. The canister obviously came from them, but that is all I know. I will ask them tomorrow." He slightly lifted his chin then, "Unless you wish me to go right now, my love."

For a moment Tang Shen hesitated, then quickly shook her head, "No, it can wait until tomorrow." She looked down at Splinter, and he looked right back up at her with a questioning look in his eyes. "He does not seem to be in pain or any discomfort." She smiled down at the rat and stroked the fur on top of his head, "It can wait."

Yoshi nodded, "Alright. But not too long, I believe he has actually grown taller since we brought him back home."

Sighing Tang Shen nodded silently. She too had noticed this. How much more would he grow?

Carefully she removed him from her lap and gently placed him back on the bed, pushing thoughts of him growing larger than this room out of her head and stood up. Turning towards the door that led to their bathroom she hesitated. It had been her intention to get ready for bed as well.

"They will not bite," Yoshi said, and she gave him a reprimanding stare for the joking tone in his voice before turning back to stare at the door again.

"How can you be sure?" she replied and walked towards it. Behind her she heard a soft thud that could only mean Splinter had jumped off of the bed and was now following her. Reaching the door she slowly opened it as if expecting something to come charging out. Nothing did however and she felt silly for feeling relieved.

Walking inside the already lit room she nearly gasped when something rushed past her legs. Almost instantly she realized it was Splinter who had come into the bathroom with her and had bounded past her towards the bathtub. Letting out a breath while silently telling herself to get a grip on her nerves already Tang Shen followed him and watched as the rat stood on his hind paws, his front paws perched on the edge of the bathtub as he peered down into it.

Smiling at the cute sight he made she joined him and stared down into the bathtub. Instantly her smile vanished and her eyes grew larger.

"Yoshi?!" she called without moving her eyes, trying to make her voice sound neutral, but judging from the hastening sounds her husband made as he quickly came to her, she had failed at it. She was still staring down into the bathtub as he practically materialized at her side.

"We may have a bigger problem," she added, though she was sure she was stating the obvious as Yoshi was now also staring down. Her own gaze was locked onto a small face with soft brown eyes surrounded by green skin, looking right back up at her. Smiling.

* * *

A/N: Thank you to the people who have been reading so far! I appreciate people adding this to their story alert, though of course I would love it even more if people left a review as well ^_~ Critique is also welcome, as long as you can give me something to work with of course.

If you hadn't figured it out yet, the turtles themselves are about to make their entry! But we're still in the prologue part of the story and it's not over yet ^_^


	4. The Turtles

The turtles

Four little turtles were gathered inside the bathtub, their eyes all raised to the audience of three peering down on them. Tang Shen couldn't help but note to herself that they were not as little as they had been when Yoshi had carried them in his arms back home. Like Splinter they had grown in size and considering the rat had already been larger than she remembered when they found him, it was only logical to assume the turtles must have been smaller before as well. They were still small though…just bigger than when they had left them in the bathtub to concern themselves with Splinter, the only one covered in the green ooze. Or visibly covered anyway Tang Shen had to admit. If Yoshi was right and that substance was the cause of his -their- growth, then they must have gotten some on them as well. Was this why Splinter had refused to be taken back home until they took the little turtles in their arms as well? Did he recognize a kinship in their shared problem?

"He must like you," Yoshi chuckled lightly. Blinking Tang Shen glanced at her husband's face, her mind quickly coming back to the moment and wondered what he was talking about. Looking back down at the little turtles a quick laugh escaped her as she spotted the little turtle was still smiling up at her. Right, that was what Yoshi was talking about.

Unable to help herself Tang Shen smiled back at the little creature. Then as Splinter started to wriggle in an attempt to climb over the edge of the bathtub to get closer to the turtles, she reached in and after just a momentary hesitation took the little smiling turtle in her hand. Carefully raising it she then held it in front of Splinter, allowing the rat to sniff it, his whiskers going mad with movement once more. Finishing his inspection of the little animal he craned his head to look back up at Tang Shen. She could have sworn he was trying to tell her something as his eyes held an intensity that could mean nothing else.

"What is it, Splinter?" she asked him softly, still holding the little turtle small enough to fit in one hand. Her eyes darted to the side then as Yoshi moved forwards, and couldn't help but smile as he too picked up one of the little turtles, then holding it close to his face as he seemed to inspect every spot and ridge on the little animal.

Looking back down at Splinter she was surprised to see him slide back down to the floor, no longer perched against the bathtub and giving her a satisfied little smile. What was that supposed to mean? A bit puzzled by this mysterious behavior she looked back at the little turtle in her hand, realizing she had brought it closer to her chest to keep it safe from possibly falling down.

"I would not know what a turtle should look like normally, but I have a feeling their legs normally do not bend as this one does," Yoshi then muttered, his eyes intent on the little turtle in his own hands.

The little one had stretched it's back legs to the sides Tang Shen saw in surprise. He was sitting up and holding it's front legs stretched out like arms, like Mashimi did when he wished to be picked up or hugged. And it was smiling as well now, though more hesitant like Splinter had at first.

A sharp stab of emotion surprised her then as it seemed to shoot through her chest. Blinking and then frowning she looked from the turtle in Yoshi's hands to the one she was holding. It had lain down now, seeming to nestle into her hand. It quite frankly looked adorable and again she felt something squeeze her heart. This time she knew why though. She was feeling protective. Feeling a need to take care of these young animals. These young ones.

Shaking her head with a little smile Tang Shen put the little turtle back in the bathtub with the other two. Of course she would feel this, everybody did when seeing a young animal. Wasn't that why they used puppies and kittens in commercials all the time? She in particular cared for any animal anyway, that was how Splinter had come to live with them in the first place after all.

Turning around she took a moment to collect herself, then started to brush her teeth while carefully keeping her back towards the bathtub, yet unable to block out the sounds being made behind her. Yoshi was talking to the turtle in his hands apparently, mumbling nonsense to it and Tang Shen suspected he was most likely stroking the little animal at the same time. It did look cute after all.

While washing her hands Tang Shen lifted her face to look in the mirror in front of her, searched it for something she didn't know what. What was happening to them? The day had started out so normally, just like any other day. She had gone out walking with Mashimi and Splinter, yet now at the end of that very same day she was standing in a room with five rather unusual animals, one of them being her own beloved pet rat.

Finally turning around she found Yoshi watching her, still crouched down but his hands empty now. Returning his look she leaned back until she felt the washstand support her.

"Are you alright, Tang Shen?" he asked her, his face still holding a hint of a smile, yet his voice tinted with concern.

She slowly nodded, "Yes, but...I do not know what it is, Yoshi but I can't help but feel something has changed." A quick smile flashed across her husband's face that made her arch an eyebrow at him, "Very funny but that is not what I meant. Splinter, and I suppose these turtles as well, growing as they have and…" she fumbled for words for a moment. She and Yoshi almost always spoke in English with each other now. At first it was just to practice, then it was to ease their son's education. The only exception was when they were alone at night in bed, then they would sometimes talk in their native tongue. They had learned quickly, but now Tang Shen had trouble picking the right words to describe how she felt. She didn't give up easily however.

"…And the way they look at us, smile at us. Splinter has changed but that is not what I meant. I feel something…more. Something different, like when…" Her mouth was still open, but Tang Shen didn't continue as her mind raced. The last time she had felt like this their family had been ripped apart. "Like before our brother Mashimi died. I felt something was going to be different, and it did."

Taking a deep breath Tang Shen calmed herself. Surely this didn't mean bad news for their family again? Having Splinter back was a good thing, not a bad omen. But what about the little turtles? Looking at the edge of the bathtub Tang Shen couldn't see the little animals, but she knew they were there. She could hear one or more walking about. Little pats of their feet. Or were they called paws? She had no idea.

"Nothing will happen, Tang Shen," Yoshi spoke, making her look back at him as he stood up and crossed the space between them. Taking her into his arms she gladly leaned against him now.

"I will not let anything happen to you, or Mashimi. Or Splinter."

She nodded against his shoulder, believing him.

"But what if the Utroms can not help him?"

"Then we will think of something else. Do not worry, Tang Shen."

This was a little harder to believe, but she knew he meant it anyway.

"Let us go to bed," Yoshi finally said, breaking the embrace and starting to lead her back to their bedroom, "Once we have had a good night's sleep we will be able to think much more clearly about this."

Again she nodded silently but did not follow. Gently taking her hand from his she turned around and walked to a little cabinet, opened it, and removed a few towels. She gave Yoshi a smile as he watched her curiously then moved back to the bathtub and sat down on the edge. Unfolding the towels she began to carefully place them around the little turtles, gently scooping them together in the center. She felt Yoshi moving to stand behind her so he could see what she was doing, then heard him chuckle softly. She too smiled and wondered about her own motives when suddenly both of them froze.

One of the turtles had giggled.

Her hands frozen in the motion of arranging the towels Tang Shen's eyes went wide and fixed upon the one who had made the sound. There was no mistaking it, she had nudged it closer to the other three, making it slide over the smooth surface and it had giggled. She had even seen it open it's mouth as the sound came out.

"Tang Shen…did you hear…" came the uncertain voice of her husband.

"He laughed, I heard it, Yoshi. The little turtle laughed!"

"Turtles do not laugh," Yoshi then stated in such a serious tone of voice that it nearly made Tang Shen laugh. But she didn't, the bizarre situation wouldn't let her.

"No, they do not. I may not know much about turtles but I do know they do not laugh. Not like that," she said instead, her head bobbing foolishly as if trying to convince herself at the same time. A nudge to her leg made her look down. Splinter looked back up at her, his eyes holding a questioning look. There was definitely intelligence there, she was certain of it.

"Which one was it?" Yoshi suddenly asked, "Which one laughed?"

Without replying Tang Shen looked back inside the bathtub at the little turtles. They all looked alike to her but she thought she knew which one it had been, it hadn't moved much. Reaching in she gently picked it up, surprised she hadn't even hesitated this time and held it up for Yoshi to take. Putting a hand on the edge of the bathtub to steady herself she slightly turned so she could look up at him without getting up from her crouch.

She didn't know what to think right now, nor expect what her husband would do. Still, she wouldn't have guessed he would start _tickling_ the little animal. A startled laugh escaped her as the little turtle nearly instantly responded with childish giggling. Both humans shared a wide eyed look but Yoshi did not stop right away and gently continued to move his finger over the green skin. The turtle sounded cheerful, like Mashimi did when they tickled his belly.

On impulse Tang Shen shifted back so she was facing the bathtub once more and randomly picked up another turtle. Holding it in her hands she watched it shift it's little head so it could look at her. With rapid little movements she gently stroked the little turtle as Yoshi was doing with the other. She saw it's eyes widen in surprise, the corners of it's mouth arching upwards in what seemed to her a very unnatural angle for an animal and little bubbles of sound escaped it's now open mouth. It didn't sound quite like the other's giggling did, but still sounded like laughter nonetheless. It sparked laughter of her own and soon both humans were laughing along with the turtles, which continued even after they had stopped tickling them.

Breathing heavily from the laughter Tang Shen got back up to her feet while carefully balancing the little turtle in her hands. It somehow had made her feel better however and she could tell from Yoshi's face that he too had felt some relief from having laughed.

"Yoshi, they sound like children!"

This time it was his turn to nod without answering and it made her smile to see him flustered.

"We can not leave them behind in the bathtub, we must keep them with us," she continued firmly, already bending over to take the remaining two turtles in her hands. Odd how she had refused to touch them when they had found them in the sewer with Splinter, yet here she was gathering them in her arms now. She did not know how her eyes shined as she looked down at them.

"With us? Where?" Yoshi asked, looking at her in confusion, then glancing through the open door at their bed as if wondering whether she meant to have them sleep with them. It made her laugh. She felt good for some reason.

"We can use the old basinet we used when Mashimi was a baby, they'll easily fit in there," she told him with a smile, resisting the urge to tease him as she wished to get started. "Come, Splinter," she told the rat and moved back to her bedroom, "I believe it is somewhere in our closet."

Having her arms full of turtles she couldn't quite open the closet door to look inside, but Yoshi was already standing next to her, gently adding the fourth turtle to her own little collection and got to work searching through the closet. It didn't take him long however before he pulled out the little basket they had used when Mashimi had just been born, keeping the basinet next to their own bed to keep their firstborn close to them at night.

Putting it on their bed Yoshi then went back to get a small blanket, also one they had used when their son had been smaller, and put it inside the basinet. Smiling Tang Shen then waited until he gently picked up one turtle at a time from her arms and placed it inside the basinet until she was left with one. Raising it to her face she looked at it as it moved it's little legs in the air, "Do not worry, little one, we'll take care of you and your brothers or sisters." On impulse she placed a little kiss on it's leathery little head before placing it in the basinet with the other three. Glancing to the side she caught Yoshi looking at her with on odd look on his face.

"What?" she asked him.

"Nothing," he finally replied, but she was sure he was fighting back a smile.

"Let's go to bed," he said and Tang Shen agreed. Suddenly she felt exhausted.

As they settled in Tang Shen patted the foot end of the bed while looking at Splinter on the floor. He instantly got the idea and managed to hop onto the bed. He circled in a spot for a moment before lying down. He did not lower his head straight away however and looked first at the basinet that now stood close to Tang Shen's side of the bed, then shifted his gaze to first Yoshi, then her. He smiled once more but there was no hesitation at all this time. She smiled back, "Good night, Splinter."

* * *

A/N: In case you tried to guess which turtle was who: the turtle smiling up at Tang Shen at the beginning was Don, the turtle picked up Yoshi was Leo, the first one to start giggling was (predictably) Mikey, and the one tickled by Tang Shen then was Raph ^_^


	5. The First Night

The First Night

An odd scratching sound woke Tang Shen up. Blinking sleepily in the darkness she reached out and turned on the light on her nightstand. Blinking more furiously now against the sudden light she reached up to rub her eyes with a hand, whispering Yoshi's name at the same time to wake him up tough she was fairly sure the light already had.

Peering through her eyelashes she looked at where the sound had come from, feeling the bed shift as Yoshi turned as well, asking her what was wrong. As her gaze fell on the little basinet her first thought was a stray dog had somehow managed to get inside the house and was attacking her baby son. Almost instantly her mind woke up completely however and the events from the day before came rushing back to her. What she had mistaken for a large dog was actually Splinter.

"He has grown again!"

Glancing over her shoulder she looked at Yoshi. He was the one who had spoken. He was sitting up, slightly leaning over her as he was looking down as well. Looking back down at the large grey rat Tang Shen tried to decide whether what she was seeing was good or bad, but couldn't. Splinter had almost doubled in size since they had gone to bed! He was looking back up at them, a paw on the basinet. That must have been the scratching sound that had woken her up.

Sitting up as well Tang Shen then quickly slipped out of bed to kneel next to the now giant rat, placing a hand on his head. His ears folded out of her hand's way, but he didn't move other than to look at the basinet once more. She followed his gaze as she heard Yoshi get out of bed behind her. Her eyes were glued to the contents of the basinet now. The turtles had grown as well, though they still all managed to fit inside the basinet together. But it wasn't their size that captured her attention, _and_ breath.

Yoshi kneeled next to her, then gasped as he saw the turtles with a hand frozen halfway to the basinet, "They're children!"

Tang Shen nodded slowly. There was no other way to describe them. They still looked like turtles, with green skin and shells, but their body build had somehow completely changed. Their arms and legs now angled outward from their shell like those of a human. A human child anyway, as their little arms and legs were definitely chubby like that of a young child. Their faces had somehow also changed their structure. They did not have human faces by any standards, but it still looked more human than it had before.

"What happened?" she whispered as her eyes followed the swaying movement of a little hand. A soft touch on her arm made her look away to find Splinter to be the one who had done so. He raised his paw from her arm to place it on her shoulder and leaned back to sit on his hind legs. He most definitely had grown Tang Shen thought absently. Splinter didn't stop moving however and continued to rise up. Tang Shen's eyes somehow managed to grow even wider as he stretched out his hind paws until he was balancing on them. Standing on them.

He was standing upright.

Realizing her mouth was hanging open Tang Shen quickly closed it, then opened it again to whisper Splinter's name. She didn't know what else to say beside repeat her question, "What happened??"

Splinter moved his jaws and Tang Shen thought he was chewing something for a moment.

"…Not…Know…"

Her mouth was hanging open again and this time Tang Shen didn't bother to close it. She had seen him do it, yet her brain was still fighting against it. Rats did not speak, not even giant ones.

"Did he just…did you…speak?" came Yoshi's voice, but Tang Shen could not tear her eyes away from the grey furred being standing, _standing,_ next to her.

She took a deep breath, "Splinter, you spoke!" she whispered, her eyes still wide.

The giant rat nodded at her, "…Yes…Speak…"

"How is this possible?" Yoshi asked, though it didn't sound as if he was expecting an answer.

Splinter shook his head, "Not know…Not…understand…Speak."

She wasn't sure which part he didn't understand, how he knew how to talk or what talking was, but it didn't matter. It was all very confusing and she toyed with the idea of this actually being a dream, but then she remembered the touch of his paw on her arm. No, this was not a dream, this was real.

A giggling sound made her look down again at the turtles in the basinet. She didn't know which one had made the sound as they all appeared to be smiling, so reached in and simply picked one up. Yoshi moved closer to her as she turned the turtle around. Had she done this before they went to bed she would have said she was turning the turtle upside down. Now she could only describe it as turning the turtle on his back to face her.

Like a young child the turtle flailed it's limbs around excitedly, a grin on it's face that spoke of innocence. It made her smile and as she looked at Yoshi he looked back at her with a grin as well. No longer able to hold the turtle in just one hand she carefully supported it's body with both as she placed him back in the basinet.

"I wonder if they are male or fem…boys or girls," Tang Shen wondered out loud. Maybe she should go to the library the next day and get some books on turtles. Surely she would find what the difference was in there.

"…Boys…" Surprised she and Yoshi looked at Splinter as he sat down again, though he kept his paw on Tang Shen's shoulder.

"Are you sure? All of them?" she asked and got a serious nod from the rat in return. She was about to ask him how he knew but decided against it. She could ask some other time. This made her stop and she wondered how long Splinter would stay like this. If the Utroms changed him back she would not be able to talk to him anymore.

"Yoshi," she said quickly, this idea now suddenly bothering her, "Maybe we should not tell the Utroms about this."

"What? Why not? They will help us, Tang Shen, they would not harm Splinter!" It sounded very defensive and Tang Shen felt guilty for having sounded like she might be accusing their alien friends from anything possibly harmful, even if she had not meant it that way.

"It's not that, but… Splinter can talk now!"

While fumbling with the words to explain her feelings to Yoshi she saw the look on his face slowly change to one of understanding, and before she could continue he spoke.

"I understand, but we should still tell them, Tang Shen. If Splinter and the turtle boys are in any danger then we must help them."

Reluctantly she had to agree with her husband and nodded. Looking back at the little turtles as they wriggled about she reached out a hand and stroked the shell of one who was more or less crawling around. The little turtle stopped moving when he felt the touch and looked up. Seeing her face he smiled at her. It made her heart melt.

"I will get dressed now, I would have gotten up in an hour anyway," Yoshi said as he got back to his feet and made his way to the bathroom, "I will ask the Utroms for council and help on this matter," he said before disappearing inside.

Folding her legs beneath her Tang Shen then placed an arm around Splinter's shoulders, letting him lean against her side. In an hour she would be waking up Mashimi and making him breakfast. That meant she had an hour to come up with a story to tell her son about their unusual houseguests.

Laughing softly she carefully lifted the little turtles from their makeshift bed and onto her lap. It also meant an hour of being able to play with four little turtle children.

* * *

A/N: Just a little one, but I had to put it in ^_^


	6. The Boy

The Boy

Tang Shen had gone to wake her son at the same time she did every day, knowing if she didn't he'd simply wake up on his own and cry for her until she showed up. They really should get him a normal bed to replace his crib already but Tang Shen felt reluctant to do so, feeling like it meant acknowledging her son was growing up faster than she would like.

While she had washed and clothed him she had told Mashimi that something special had happened to Splinter, and that their beloved pet looked a bit different now. Larger. Mashimi seemed to accept this easily enough, but she knew it would be different once he would actually see the rat, standing and talking. She had not managed to work in the presence of the little turtles in her explanation yet, when suddenly there was a hesitant knocking behind her. Turning around in Mashimi's bedroom with her son in her arms, she saw Splinter standing in the doorway, his whiskers moving rapidly as he looked at her apologetically.

"Splinter! What is it?"

Had she really just asked a giant rat a question with the full expectation he would answer her? In her arms Mashimi stared at the giant rat standing upright, easily reaching his mother's chest in size by now, but to her relief he didn't seem scared, just curious.

"Spinta?" he asked confused, looking up at his mother.

"Yes, Mashimi, that is Splinter," she said, smiling at her son while lowering herself to a crouch, beckoning Splinter over. Slowly the rat came closer, curiously looking at the little boy in her arms. He came to a stop in front of her, leaning forwards a bit and apparently sniffing the little boy.

Instantly Mashimi started to giggle, and reached out to Splinter's whiskers that were moving rapidly once more, "Spinta!"

Surprise and relieved at the ease of her son's acceptance Tang Shen let her hold on him go when he tried to wriggle free, and watched him approach Splinter cheerfully, craning his neck to look at the large rat standing in front of him. Splinter in turn smiled at the little boy and kneeled down on the floor so he would be at eye level with him, "Mashimi, my friend."

Tang Shen watched the two in happy silence for a few moments as the boy prodded the rat's chest and grabbed his fur as if to test if it were real, then cleared her throat to get their attention, "Mashimi, be gentle. Splinter may be bigger, but you must still not hurt him," she gently reminded her son , who reluctantly let go of the rat's ear then.

"Splinter, what is it you wanted?" she then asked of him. He had come knocking after all and even if he was a giant talking rat, that probably still meant he wanted something.

"The turtles…hungry," he said, the words flowing out more easily now, but he stopped her when she opened her mouth to say something by holding up a hand. The motion was automatic, and it surprised and amused her to see him do it.

"The turtles _are_ hungry," Splinter said, correcting his former sentence.

Tang Shen nodded approvingly, silently wondering again how it was even possible for him to speak, let alone master a language so well and so quickly. She surely had taken a whole lot longer to master the English language when she first came to this country.

"I will bring them to the kitchen so they can eat. Will you watch Mashimi for a moment, Splinter?" she asked him, not even considering it to be dangerous to leave her young son in the presence of a giant mutant rat. This was Splinter, she trusted him.

"I take him to kitchen?" Splinter suggested instead.

Surprised Tang Shen smiled, then nodded, "Good idea." Getting up to her feet she then quickly settled the folds of the blue dress she wore today and headed back to her own bedroom, casting a glance over her shoulder as she passed through the doorway to her son's bedroom to see Splinter take the little boy's hand and guide him out.

Still smiling widely Tang Shen reached her own bedroom and found one of the little turtles climbing over the edge of the little basinet.

"Careful!" she called out before rushing forwards. Quickly she grabbed the little turtle before he could lose his balance and fall out. Holding him in an arm she was about to pick up the basinet by it's handles to carry the rest of them when she realized there were only two turtles in it. That made three with the one on her arm, so where was the fourth?

Letting go of the basinet's handles she put the turtle back inside and got down to her hands and knees to look under the bed, "Little turtle? Where are you?" she called out as she lifted the cover to see better. It was too dark to see well, but right as she was about to get up and get a flashlight she thought she heard something. Narrowing her eyes in an attempt to see better she heard it again. It definitely came from under the large bed and sounded like childish mutterings. Getting onto her stomach Tang Shen wriggled beneath the bed, carefully feeling around with her hands so she would not accidentally squish the turtle.

Suddenly one of her hands touched something hard and she recognized it as the feel of the turtles' shell. Smiling silently at the surprised gasp, she took a hold of the little body, and wriggled back out from underneath the bed. Taking a deep breath she pushed a few loose strands of her hair back again with a hand, keeping a hold of the turtle child with the other. He looked back at her with a look that almost made her laugh. He looked insulted to have been interrupted during his exploration.

"My apologies, little adventurer, but if you wish to eat you will have to come with me now," she said to him, trying for her most serious look, but not really succeeding. The annoyed look on the little face simply looked too adorable. "Come now," she said to him as she got back to her feet once more, holding him in an arm and grabbing the basinet with her free hand by it's handles. A bit of giggling and surprised cheering sounded from inside of it at the sudden movement. It made her laugh as well. Cheering turtles. This wasn't a dream, it was something better.

In the kitchen she found Mashimi seated in his highchair already and Splinter sitting at the breakfast table, patiently listening to the boy's babbling. Again Tang Shen felt her heart melt at the sight.

"Here we are!" she cheerfully announced her presence as she walked in. Splinter turned around, though by the look on his face he had already known she was there. It took Tang Shen a moment to realize he had probably heard her coming. Or maybe smelled her coming. She really didn't know which of his senses was the strongest and whether they still were for that matter in his new form.

Reaching the table she placed the basinet on top of it, then hesitated before letting go of the handles. If they climbed out they could hurt themselves if they fell off of the table. Picking it up again she then placed the basinet on the floor instead. She continued to hold the one turtle boy in her arms however as she saw Mashimi look at it with wide eyes.

Approaching her son with the little turtle she was about to tell him what it was, but the boy beat her to it.

"Little gween!" he shouted out, suddenly looking very happy.

Startled Tang Shen didn't know what to say for a moment, then looked down at the turtle she held. The green child had a clumsy grasp of her dress. When had she heard Mashimi say something similar?

"Yes, my son, he is little and green. He is a little turtle."

"Turtle!"

His pronunciation of the word was rather well Tang Shen thought proudly and moved close enough for Mashimi to see the turtle better. Grinning excitedly the little boy reached out a hand and after a quick warning from his mother to be gentle, touched the turtle's shell. The small turtle didn't seem to be too happy with this and clumsily reached a three-fingered hand towards the boy. Misunderstanding Mashimi took the little green hand in his own, then looked up at his mother with a laugh, "Look, Mommy! We han'shakin'!"

It made Tang Shen chuckle, though she carefully removed her son's much larger hand from the turtle's smaller one, afraid he might accidentally hurt him.

"There are three more little turtles over there," she then said and nodded towards the basinet. Mashimi stretched his neck in an attempt to look inside of it from his highchair. "They will be staying with us for a while," Tang Shen finished. Then she looked around, searching for a good place to put the little turtle in her arms but couldn't find one. Frowning she wondered what to do when Splinter reached up. Smiling gratefully she gave him the little turtle and watched him place him on his lap. The turtle was too small to be able to look over the table's edge, but at least he was safe and looked content enough with his new perch.

Taking the basinet once more Tang Shen placed it beside Splinter so he could keep an eye on them, then proceeded to make breakfast. She always gave Mashimi some porridge in the morning and had some fruit herself, but she wondered what to feed the other five. Splinter usually ate the same things the humans did, but she still hesitated.

"Splinter, would you like some fruit? Or maybe porridge? Or something else?" she finally just asked him, hoping he knew what each word meant. It appeared he did.

"Fruits, please," he replied politely with a bow of his head.

Nodding satisfied Tang Shen then looked at the little turtle he held on his lap and wondered what turtles ate, and whether these little green children even still qualified as turtles. She figured Splinter would not have an answer to this and proceeded to make more porridge and try her luck with it.

Giving Mashimi his porridge in his own bowl she told him he could try to eat on his own today and hoped he would not throw too much food on the floor. She then placed a second bowl on the table and a plate with several pieces of fruit she had cut up in front of Splinter. He thanked her, then waited as she picked up the turtle from his lap before delicately picking up a piece of fruit and nibbling it.

Tang Shen took the turtle and the basinet with her to sit at the table opposite of Splinter. Sitting down behind the second bowl of porridge she put the basinet beside her, then carefully sat the single turtle in the crook of her arm.

"Alright, little one, lets see if you like this," she muttered, more to herself than the turtle and took the small spoon from the table, put a bit of porridge on it and brought it to the turtle's mouth, mentally praying.

The little turtle seemed to consider the spoon held in front of it, smelling it, then reached for it with a little hand.

"No, no, little one! It is not for playing, it is for eating!" she gently spoke to the turtle, wondering whether it knew how to eat solids already, then remembered turtles weren't mammals and thus didn't suckle to begin with. Of course that didn't mean they could eat food off of a spoon either though.

"Try it little one, open your mouth!" she coaxed it gently, unconsciously twisting her own mouth open in the hopes of convincing the little turtle to do the same. She was not aware of the amused smile on Splinter's face, nor of the odd look on her son's as they looked at her.

The little turtle moved his head away when she tried to move the spoon closer, flapping his arms up and down, and kept his mouth closed. Splinter had said the turtles were hungry, so Tang Shen hoped he would open his mouth eventually. Then again, maybe the porridge simply didn't appeal to him. It most likely wasn't a part of a turtle's regular diet.

Thinking hard she tried to remember everything she knew about turtles and suddenly recalled a documentary she had seen on tv once about baby sea turtles rushing towards the sea across a beach. Maybe he would like to eat some fish then? Then again, those had been sea turtles and Tang Shen was fairly sure these turtles were not. So what did land turtles eat then?

Still considering this the little turtle started to fuss a bit. Deciding to try it she brushed the porridge across the turtle's mouth, then simply waited as she watched him. The turtle stopped moving and seemed to consider what had just happened. He rapidly moved his arms up and down again, but also opened his mouth. Tang Shen saw a small tongue flick out and knew he would now be tasting the food. Holding her breath without realizing it she continued to wait.

A moment passed where the turtle didn't move and seemed to consider what was inside his mouth. Then he flailed his arms again, but started to smile as he clumsily licked the rest of the porridge from his lips.

Releasing her breath Tang Shen smiled as well and brought the spoon back to the little turtle. He took a bite of porridge this time, then took his time swallowing it. Mentally congratulating herself Tang Shen looked up again at Splinter and saw a small knowing smile on his face. It made her blush with embarrassment as she realized what she must have looked like, then simply laughed. It was how things went with children after all.

Looking over at Mashimi she saw he had indeed been feeding himself with his own spoon, and while she saw no porridge on the floor (yet) there was a good deal of it on his face and shirt. Oh well, she could clean him up afterwards, the turtles needed her feeding them more than her son did right now. Looking down again she continued giving the turtle small bites of porridge until she eventually felt he had had enough. Placing him back in the basinet she then picked up a second little turtle and started the whole thing over again.

This one seemed fussier though, and every now and then refused to take another bite. It took a lot of coaxing to get him to eat as much as the first one had, and eventually she gave up, deciding it had been enough. Not all children ate the same amounts, so the same was probably true for mutant turtle children. She started to place this little turtle back in the basinet as well to look for a third to feed, when she realized she didn't know which had already eaten. They all looked alike to her.

Narrowing her eyes she considered all three of them, keeping the one she had just fed in her hands. The patterns on their shells were mostly alike, though she could now see there were subtle differences. They were too small for her to pick up on easily though. Suddenly she got an idea.

"I'll be right back," she told Splinter and Mashimi. Standing up she took the little turtle in her hands with her to her bedroom. Placing him safely in the middle of her bed, she then opened a drawer in a cabinet and withdrew a bag. Closing the drawer again she returned to the bed,and placed the bag on it. Reaching inside of it she removed some pieces of cloth and placed them on the bed. She liked to make her own dresses, and thus bought cloth now and then to use. She kept the leftover pieces however, in case she wanted to make something else out of them. She also had many accessories like buttons, lace and ribbons and it was the latter she was looking for now.

Selecting a few ribbons she then searched for her scissors and cut them all the same length. Putting everything away again while casting occasional glances at the little turtle to make sure he stayed put in the middle of the bed, she then returned to him with four ribbons of different colors. Looking at them she chose a purple ribbon and put the other three back on the bed. Carefully she tied the ribbon around the turtle's shell, tying it into a bow on his back and out of his little hands' way, making sure the knot was tight so it wouldn't come undone easily.

"There we go, my little fussy one, now I will be able to recognize you," she told the little turtle, who reached out with a hand to her face in reply.

Taking the other three ribbons Tang Shen walked back to the kitchen and placed the ribboned turtle back in the basinet. Sitting down in her chair again after determining Mashimi was still trying to get more porridge in his mouth rather than on his face at Splinter's encouragement, Tang Shen considered the other three turtles again. Suddenly she saw that one of them had a bit of porridge on his chin, that had to be the one she had fed first. Picking him up she looked at the other three remaining ribbons and considered the little turtle in her hands. Remembering the look on his face when she had retrieved him from under her bed she smiled, picked the red colored ribbon from the table and tied it around the turtle's shell as she had done with the purple one.

Satisfied she put him back in the basinet as well, then picked up one of the other two ribbonless turtles to start the feeding process again.

"Done!" Mashimi suddenly shouted, claiming her attention as he raised his arms in victory, the spoon still in one of his hands and dripping porridge on the floor. Tang Shen still couldn't help but smile at him as she saw the smug grin on her son's face.

"Very good, Mashimi!" she called to him, putting the spoon she had picked up herself back in the bowl, and placed the turtle back in the basinet. She knew Mashimi would start to fuss if she left him in the high chair now and she wasn't about to let him run around while he still carried part of his breakfast on him.

"Splinter, please keep an eye on the turtles, I'll be right back. I need to wash my dirty little son!" she said, tickling Mashimi as she lifted him up and carried him out of the kitchen at a nod from the rat.

Hurrying Tang Shen cleaned the boy's face and neck, then got him a clean shirt. Thankfully he hadn't gotten any food in his hair or on his pants, so after this quick clean up she picked him up again and rushed back to the kitchen, well aware two little hungry turtles were waiting for her. To her relief however she found Splinter sitting in the chair she had abandoned with a little turtle in his arms, feeding it like she had the other two.

"Thank you," she told him as she put Mashimi on the floor, then grabbed another clean spoon from a drawer and moved to sit next to Splinter on the other side of the basinet, and took the last ribbonless turtle out.

"Colors good idea," Splinter said as he looked up at her, indicating the two turtles left in the basinet.

Tang Shen nodded, "I could not tell them apart, and I would not want to accidentally skip one."

Splinter nudged the bowl of porridge so it was in between them on the table and Tang Shen dipped her spoon in. The little turtle she held started to giggle then and waved it's arms and legs. Mashimi moved closer to look at him. Tang Shen held the spoon close to the turtle's mouth, prepared to use the same trick she had used on the first two to get them to taste to new substance, but was surprised when the little turtle eagerly started to eat what it was offered.

"Turtle like it!" Mashimi declared happily.

Tang Shen hoped this was true and the poor thing wasn't simply so hungry from having to wait for his turn that it would eat anything. He continued to smile however and happily waved his arms after every bite, so Tang Shen decided he really did like it. She looked over at Splinter and saw that the turtle he was feeding was eating as well, though with less enthusiasm. He wasn't refusing the food however, so she returned her attention to the little one she was holding.

When Splinter put the spoon back on the table he looked up at her questioningly. She didn't understand what he wanted until he pointed at the two remaining ribbons.

"Oh!" She looked at the turtle he was holding, then shrugged with a smile, "You decide, Splinter."

Raising his eyebrows in apparent surprise the giant rat then frowned at the two ribbons lying on the table, taking it entirely too seriously Tang Shen thought amused, and watched him. Splinter finally picked a ribbon and proceeded to tie it around the little turtle, casting many glances at the basinet to see how she had done it. He fumbled around a bit but kept a secure hold on the turtle child, so Tang Shen decided not to interfere and let him try. Besides, she was curious to see how well Splinter could use his new nimble fingers. After a few tries the little turtle sported a crooked blue ribbon bow on his shell and was gently placed back in the basinet by Splinter, who wore a satisfied little smile on his face.

"This one is almost done as well," Tang Shen said, trying to calculate if the turtle had had about the same amount as the others, though it didn't seem to want to stop eating yet.

After she had tied the remaining orange ribbon around the last turtle and placed him back with the other three, Tang Shen realized she hadn't eaten anything herself yet. Rolling her eyes with a laugh she got up and got the plate of fruit she had left on the counter, then sat down at the table again. Mashimi was kneeling next to the basinet, inspecting the little turtles who were looking back at him with just as much curiosity. He was holding his face close to the turtles and two of the turtles were clumsily patting his chin with their hands, making the boy laugh.

"Look, mommy! Turtle like me!"

Smiling Tang Shen started to eat her own breakfast and turned to regard Splinter as he still sat on the chair next to her.

"My dear Splinter, you have no idea how often I have wished you could speak," she told him fondly after swallowing a bite.

"I have often wished I could speak to you…" Splinter replied, then hesitated, his ears twitching, "…Mother."

* * *

A/N: Just two more parts to the "prologue" to go and then the actual story will start ^_^ I hope you're enjoying the ride so far!


	7. The Utrom and the Alligator

The Utrom and the Alligator

Breakfast had been interesting to put it mildly but it hadn't stopped there. Mashimi had at first insisted they go to the park like they did every day, eager to play with Splinter and the little turtles outside. For obvious reasons Tang Shen had objected, which resulted in an upset little boy who refused to stop sulking until Splinter suggested they play here in the house. They had spent a few hours playing with Mashimi's blocks, building towers and castles. The little boy had been overjoyed at having Splinter as a play companion and the rat seemed happy exercising his hands and arms, experimenting with what he could do now. Tang Shen meanwhile had at first cleaned up the little turtles, removing the small amounts of food that had missed their mouths, then kept them occupied with simple games like peekaboo. Apparently they loved seeing her put on silly faces.

She had let them out of the basinet and watched them crawl around as they explored the living room, retrieving them when they wandered too far. They seemed rather mobile,and after a while of observing them Tang Shen thought they must be around a year old in human terms. When the blue ribboned one tried to stand up on his legs by grabbing the hem of her dress she was sure of it. He tipped over however, resulting in a bout of giggling.

Eventually Mashimi and the turtles tired of their games and while Splinter put the turtles back in the basinet, Tang Shen put her pouting son in bed for a nap. This gave her a couple of hours to talk with Splinter and she was surprised at how much he remembered from his life as an ordinary rat, how much he had understood from what was happening around his family, though he still had trouble putting it into words.

Yoshi called home at one point to ask her how she was doing, sounding very worried. She put him at ease by telling him everything was going fine and that neither Splinter or the turtles had they grown any more since he left that morning, nor were they in any discomfort and ended up telling him about breakfast, making him laugh when she got to the part of the ribbons. He had spoken to the Utroms he then told her and mysteriously added he would be bringing some guests with him this evening after dinner. It had been a short conversation really and left Tang Shen with many questions. Yoshi hadn't said anything that could indicate Splinter and the turtles could possibly be in any kind of danger, but he hadn't said anything to deny it either. This worried her.

The rest of the day had been just as hectic, though no serious problems came up. Mashimi even played with the turtles for a while, though he tired of his mother's constant reminders that he had to be careful as they were younger and much smaller than he was.

Dinner was much more complicated than breakfast and far from orderly, but everybody ate their share -some after more prodding than others- and Tang Shen felt satisfied about the whole thing. And it wasn't like she couldn't wash the many food stains out of her dress after all.

She was clearing the table while Splinter kept Mashimi and the turtles occupied in the living room when suddenly the front door opened. For a moment Tang Shen felt her heart skip a beat in alarm and her eyes flew to the little scene on the floor in front of the couch. But before she could think up any doom scenarios of a stranger walking in to see the odd beings, Yoshi stepped inside. Calming down instantly she reprimanded herself for her foolishness. Only Yoshi and herself had keys to the house, nobody would have been able to walk in like that, unless it was a burglar working at unusual hours. It wasn't dark outside yet, though the twilight indicated the sun was about to set.

Yoshi stepped to the side and opened the door a bit more to allow two others to enter after him. To Tang Shen's surprise one of them was a child bundled up like it was winter instead of summer. The other visitor she recognized as Captain Mortu, the Utrom who was more or less in charge when you didn't count the council. She had only met him twice, one time being at her own wedding, but she liked him.

Smiling she walked towards them as Yoshi quietly closed the door. She reached him first and gave him a kiss as a welcome. She then shook hands with Mortu who greeted her warmly, then bended over to the child next and was about to greet it when she caught a glance inside the hood of its jacket. Surprised her words didn't leave her mouth and the youth lowered it's head a little more to hide it's face.

Mortu, who had been staring at Splinter and the children noticed this and stepped forwards, placing a hand on the child's shoulder, "It's alright, Leatherhead, you don't have to fear Tang Shen." He glanced at Splinter and the turtles for a moment, "I'm pretty sure she will not be alarmed by your appearance by now," he added a bit dryly.

Feeling ashamed for her first reaction Tang Shen smiled widely, "Yes, you do not need to be afraid of me, little one, I would love to see your face."

Hesitating a bit the child, Leatherhead, reached up with a gloved hand and pulled the hood of his jacket back to reveal a scaly green face. Tang Shen instantly recognized the reptilian look of an alligator even though she had never seen one in real life. She took a moment to take it all in, not just his looks, but the whole idea of there being more beings like Splinter and the turtles. There was an expecting look in Leatherhead's eyes however, waiting to be judged, and Tang Shen knew she would have to wrestle with her own thoughts later.

Reaching out with her hand for a formal handshake her smile increased, "Hello, Leatherhead, it is nice to meet you. My name is Tang Shen."

The alligator boy looked at her hand for a moment before he hesitantly put his own gloved one in it, looking back at her face, "Hello, Tang Shen," he said shyly, his voice sounding rather deep for a child, "You're very pretty," he added even shyer then, making her laugh in surprise.

But then she bowed her head, "Thank you, Leatherhead, that is very kind of you."

She then straightened up and motioned with a hand towards the couch, "Come on in, child, there are some people I think you'd like to meet." She reached her hand to him again, and as he took it after a moment of hesitation and with an encouraging nod from Mortu, she guided him to the others who had watched them with varying degrees of interest, Yoshi and the Utrom following them silently.

"Everybody, I would like you to meet Leatherhead," Tang Shen said formerly as they stood in front of the couch, "Leatherhead, this is my son Mashimi," she introduced the boy that had stood up and was approaching them curiously, then motioned to the others, "And this is Splinter, and, em, well, these are the turtles," she ended a bit lamely. She had been referring to them by the color of their ribbons so far and didn't think it'd be a good idea to introduce them like that.

"Hi Leatha'head!" Mashimi piped up cheerfully, already having accepted the odd looking boy who was green just like these babies. Splinter uttered a simple greeting as well. The turtles just stared back with a squeal and a giggle here and there at the attention.

"And I am Captain Mortu, though you may simply call me Mortu," the last unfamiliar presence in the room introduced himself.

"Mortu!" Mashimi immediately shouted but was hushed by his mother, so he returned his attention to Leatherhead who unlike the turtles seemed like a much better playmate. The boy grabbed his gloved hand and clumsily pulled him to his toys in a corner of the room, already chattering to the flustered mutant child who looked back over his shoulder at the adults for reassurance from Mortu. The alien once more nodded at the child, letting him know it was alright.

Tang Shen motioned to the couch for Mortu to sit down, then as he and Yoshi did, she sat down as well. It was only then that she remembered the stains on her dress, making her blush as she brushed at a particular large one on her skirt. Mortu noticed this and chuckled, "Please do not worry, ma'am, taking care of so many children must not have been an easy task. Especially not with special children like these."

Tang Shen didn't know what to say to this so she simply smiled and humbly cast her gaze down. Yoshi spoke up instead, "It was indeed the ooze from the canister that caused the change in Splinter and the baby turtles," he said, looking from Splinter to Tang Shen, who had picked up one of said turtles as he had been trying to pull himself up by her dress to attempt to stand again. She settled the blue ribboned turtle on her lap and indicated for Yoshi to continue.

It was Mortu however who spoke next, "It has obviously happened before. An accident that caused a young alligator to be mutated to what you see now," he said and looked in the direction of the two playing boys. "We have been trying to keep the substance away from any public contact,but we must still move it to a storage area. One of the canisters must have fallen from the transport yesterday in a near accident…"

"I saw that happen!" Tang Shen blurted out, remembering the truck and the blind man very well.

"Well, then you know it was an accident," Mortu said, then looked at Splinter as the rat looked down in thought, "This has only happened once so far…Well, twice now, but we do not know what effects it will have on an older…being," he finished delicately, making Splinter look back up at him in silence.

"I'm afraid we have not found a way to undo this transformation. This waste residue causes an instant mutation in the DNA that appears to be both stable and permanent."

Splinter looked neither happy nor sad at this information Tang Shen noted, just thoughtful.

"But as I said, we don't know the effects this may have on somebody a bit older, so I'd like you to come back with me, Splinter, so we may perform a few tests to make sure you are not in any danger."

Tang Shen felt alarmed at this, not wishing to let Splinter leave her sight. Yoshi saw this and tried to reassure her, "It will be alright, Tang Shen, the Utroms know what they are doing."

"Indeed we do, ma'am. Well, most of the time anyway," Mortu joked, but then cleared his throat when he realized Tang Shen didn't find it funny at all. "Truth is, we don't understand what exactly triggers this mutation. All we can do is study it for now."

Tang Shen nodded silently at this, though she still did not feel reassured.

"We can keep these children at our base as well where our people have been keeping young Leatherhead. It simply wouldn't be a good idea to risk letting the general public see them and start asking questions after all. Not to mention the danger this could put them in themselves. We Utroms don't walk around in these suits for fun after all, certain things simply must be kept a secret to protect ourselves from the ignorance of others."

This Tang Shen understood but she still hesitated as her eyes kept glancing at the little turtles crawling on the ground, her hands tightening their hold on the blue ribboned one on her lap.

"But…" she started hesitantly, not knowing how she was going to say this, or even entirely sure of _what_ she was going to say, "There is no need…I mean, I know how busy you Utroms are with your own problems. Raising children, four children, is a very demanding task. It would not be fair to expect such a thing of you."

Tang Shen realized Yoshi was looking at her with his eyebrows raised up high and even Mortu looked at her questioningly. Splinter however was smiling at her confidently and this made her feel a little bit better, less foolish, and she took a calming breath.

"Mrs. Hamato, are you saying you want to keep these children?"

"Well…" Tang Shen glanced at Yoshi again, not really sure herself, she just knew that during the course of this day she had become rather attached to these little creatures and felt a need to protect them. Felt a love for them. Felt like they belonged here with her. A smile was starting to grow on Yoshi's face, half amused, half understanding.

"Yes," she finally said.

"I would love for these children to grow up in a normal family, but as I already mentioned, we must consider our, and their safety. I'm afraid you can not guarantee to keep them safe at all costs."

"Neither can you," Tang Shen found herself saying and couldn't stop herself from continuing, "Children need love and attention. And I'm not saying you can't do that," she added hastily, "but taking care of four young children, five counting young Leatherhead, at the same time is very demanding when you already have other pressing matters to keep you busy. I do not have a job, my job is to take care of my family. And I can take care of these other children as well. It may not be easy to keep them hidden, but we can do it…" At this she looked at Yoshi hesitantly, not wanting to make a decision like this without him, but found him smiling back at her and nodded when they made eye contact.

"I believe Tang Shen can do what she says, master Mortu, and you know I will always do everything in my power to keep the secret of the Utroms safe," Yoshi added more seriously.

Mortu was frowning now, or the face on his body suit was anyway as he regarded both of them carefully. And seriously Tang Shen noted while her heart beat rapidly with hope.

"Well, I suppose if we relocate your family to a safer place where you can keep these children hidden…" Mortu trailed off while he leaned back and stroked his chin deep in thought. "Then I suppose it could be possible..." He leaned forwards again and stared at Tang Shen with such intensity she found it hard to remember she was looking into the eyes of a robotic face.

"Are you absolutely sure you wish to do this, Mrs. Hamato? Tang Shen?"

She was nodding before he even finished speaking, her eyes on the little turtles crawling by his feet, "I am very sure, Captain Mortu."

* * *

A/N: I couldn't decide which of the two I should name this part after, Leatherhead or Mortu, so just put them both in the title :p One more (very short) part to go and then the "prologue" will be over.


	8. The Family

The Family

Tang Shen had finally had to leave the conversation to put Mashimi to bed. The turtles were already sleeping in their basinet beside the couch, curled around each other, a few sucking their thumb. Mortu had then left, asking Yoshi to bring Splinter and Leatherhead back later that night when there were fewer people on the streets. On impulse Tang Shen had invited the alligator child to stay the night with them instead. Surprised at the invitation Leatherhead had looked at Mortu, who in turn saw the excitement at this unusual offer in the child's eyes and gave his permission for him to stay.

Now Tang Shen found herself sitting on the couch with the child, surrounded by books as they talked about their content and looked at the pictures together. She could sense the child was immensely enjoying himself, and unlike his shy self when he had first come was now babbling about everything he saw in the books in his deep voice. She half suspected it was also to keep from being sent to bed.

Tang Shen glanced up at the door that led to Yoshi's dojo and smiled. Her husband had found out Splinter's imitations of his martial arts moves while he was still an ordinary rat had not been forgotten. In fact, while untrained, Splinter seemed to know how to move and what to do naturally. Yoshi could not hide his interest and it didn't take long for the two of them to excuse themselves and to disappear inside the dojo for the giant rat to show his unofficial mentor what he had learned from him. That had been a couple of hours ago.

"Look, the blue one hit the orange one on the head when he stretched!" Leatherhead suddenly said while pointing at the basinet. Blinking Tang Shen brought her attention back and looked. The turtles were fast asleep, but every now and then one would move in his sleep.

"I'm sure he didn't mean it," Tang Shen said with a chuckle.

"Don't they have names?" Leatherhead then asked.

The door to the dojo opened and Yoshi and Splinter walked out, both breathing heavily but smiling widely Tang Shen noted happily. She looked back at Leatherhead again, "No, I suppose they don't. Not yet anyway."

"When are you going to name them then? The Utrom scientists gave me my name," the child continued tirelessly.

Tang Shen frowned, as she had no idea. Yoshi and Splinter joined them and sat down. They had apparently heard the question.

"We named our son after a brother," Yoshi said, "Maybe we should name them after friends as well?"

Tang Shen looked away for a moment as she thought this over, still wearing a frown, "I do not think that this is a good idea, Yoshi. It would seem awkward to name them after friends they could never even meet."

He nodded thoughtfully, "You have a good point."

There was silence for a few minutes that was only broken by the sound of turning leaves as Leatherhead continued to browse his book.

"They should not have Japanese names," Yoshi suddenly said, determined. At Tang Shen's questioning look he explained himself, "We do not live there anymore. We moved to a different world and I feel their names should reflect this as well."

She nodded, "Yes, you are right, but they should not have ordinary names either as they are not ordinary themselves."

"But we can not make it too strange or invented, or they may feel even more of an outcast than they already are," Yoshi countered, then blinked as he looked at Leatherhead. The child however did not seem to have either heard, minded, or understood the comment.

"So a familiar name that is still unusual," Tang Shen said with a laugh, "That should not be hard to think of at all, especially four of them!"

Yoshi smiled sheepishly at this.

"What about this?" Splinter spoke up then, his voice serious as he lifted a book he had been leafing through while the two humans spoke.

Curiously Tang Shen took the book from him, her eyebrows then going up in surprise at the front cover. It was an art book, specifically on the Renaissance period. She held it up for Yoshi to see who at first frowned, then eventually grinned excitedly, "That may just be what we were looking for! Familiar sounding names, but not normally used anymore."

Leatherhead was paying attention to the book as well now and as Yoshi got up to come closer, Tang Shen placed the heavy child on her lap, mindful of his tail, and held the book in front of him. With Splinter sitting on her right Yoshi settled down on her left. All four of them could see the contents of the book now and Tang Shen opened it.

It wasn't easy to decide and eventually Leatherhead even fell asleep. Yoshi lifted him to another couch where he could lie down comfortably and Tang Shen got him a blanket. They stayed in the same room however, and continued to go through the book's content quietly.

Unable to decide between so many names it was finally Splinter who picked four names based upon the art of the chosen artists. Yoshi then gently carried the basinet over to them, and he and Tang Shen decided which turtle got which name. By the time they went to bed they had memorized each name and the turtle (or more specifically the color ribbon the turtle wore) it belonged to.

As Tang Shen lay in bed in the darkness she went through the day in her head. To avoid having Leatherhead wake up in an unfamiliar place by himself they had placed a cot in Mashimi's room, and then moved the child to sleep there. He hadn't even woken up. It had been a very unusual day, but at the same time had brought her much happiness. Even thinking about it now made her smile again. It had definitely not been easy, having five children to think of was very demanding but thankfully she had had Splinter to back her up whenever she needed it. Like the friend she had always seen in the simple rat, a part of her family. And he had called her mother…

Again she smiled. She had always taken care of her little friend, like a mother she supposed. And while he was, or at least looked, much older than her she still felt protective of him. In a way she had not gained four but five children today she thought, and had to stifle a giggle to keep from waking up the little turtles. She had gone from being a mother of one, to a mother of six overnight!

Yoshi had left to take Splinter to the Utroms and while a part of her worried about possible problems they might discover, she felt mostly confident that everything would be alright. Her mind then wandered back to their conversation with Mortu, about the promise she had made to protect and hide her new children. She sobered up then, remembering the sacrifice demanded of them to keep the turtles and Splinter with them: to leave their home behind and to live in hiding surrounded by secrecy from now on. Had it been the right decision they had made? Was it really worth it? Was taking in four animal babies worth risking her real son's future life in a normal human culture?

The turtles slept in their basinet by Tang Shen's side of the bed again, and she rolled to lie on her side, to look at the dark shape it made in the darkness. Inside it slept her four new little sons, as she and Yoshi had decided to raise them as their own children. She heard a small sound come from inside of it then, like a small whimper. Blinking she quietly got out of bed and kneeled beside the basinet. There was just enough light coming in from outside for her to be able to see one of the turtles awake and staring back up at her. Carefully she reached in and pulled him out from among his brothers, then carefully supported his body against her chest as she got back up to her feet. Tang Shen walked over to the window and looked down at the little green face. She could now see he sported the purple ribbon. "Donatello" her memory told her. There didn't seem to be anything wrong with him however, the little turtle even seemed to be dozing off again in her arms. Tang Shen gently swayed from side to side as she watched him yawn, a little fist reaching up as he did, then snuggle down deeper into her embrace.

She smiled. Mashimi would grow up by their side as their brother, he would be taught about family and honor as they all would, and he would eventually grow to understand their decision. Tang Shen smiled and walked back to the basinet to carefully put the little turtle back among his brothers, who seemed to welcome him back even in their sleep as they curled up around him as if he hadn't been gone from their midst. All her sons would learn about the importance of family and taking care of each other and looking at these four babies as she was now, she could not think of a better way for Mashimi to learn about a brother's love. She only hoped he would fare better with that knowledge than the man he had been named after, one who had learned about gaining a family against all odds, but had failed to realize it took love and acceptance to make it work. And a little forgiveness she thought sadly.

Tang Shen quietly got back into bed, her eyes on the basinet once more. She would not regret her decision, she was not doing anything wrong. She had already once left her home behind for the one she loved, she could do it again. And this time there were so many more for her to love and look after, she was sure she wouldn't even have time to miss her old life. Tang Shen knew this wasn't true, but it didn't matter. She was sure she had made the right decision, her heart told her so. Her purpose was to look after her family. She smiled.

In her mind she once more started to slowly repeat the names they had given to the little turtles: Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo. Four little mutant turtles born as pets, changed by fate, and brought to them by destiny. And she was going to do everything in her power to make sure they would grow up safely and happily as the newest members of the Hamato family. With that determined thought the woman finally fell asleep peacefully, ready to start her new life as a mother to six, special, children.

* * *

**A/N: And here ends the "prologue", heh heh ^_^; I hope you liked it! From now on the point of view will go to the turtles themselves, the chapters will be longer, and the actual story will begin! Well, almost anyway, they have to grow a little older first, I like little turtles too much to skip that ^_~ Updates will take longer now though, because the main story hasn't been finished yet and the chapters I already have will need some editing as well to clean them up after lying around for a year or two collecting dust!**


	9. Children will be Children

Children will be Children

Snickering quietly Leonardo quickly placed a hand in front of his mouth to make sure the sound wouldn't escape and give away his position. A prod to the arm encouraged him to get his laughter under control and silent once more he peered over the edge of the couch, making sure as little of his head could be seen as possible. The sound of footsteps could suddenly be heard and with a little gasp Leonardo shot down out of view as they came closer, pressing himself back into the couch, once again having trouble keeping giggles from coming out.

"Quiet, Leo! You'll ruin it!"

Nodding quickly the young turtle covered his mouth with both hands this time, slightly wheezing in his attempt to stop laughing. The footsteps then entered the room and Leonardo quickly turned around to sit on his knees, ready to take action, glancing to the side to watch for the signal.

"Now!" came the hissed order and Leo quickly jumped up with a battle cry that had way too many vowels, and climbed over the back of the couch. He jumped down with more difficulty than he would have liked but the small turtle managed to run forwards towards a very startled looking Raphael. Oh yes, the look on his brother's face definitely made this all worth it Leo thought and the grin on his face grew even bigger as he continued to shout his cry of war.

"We got him!" shouted Mashimi triumphantly as he tackled the startled turtle, then laughed victoriously in a rather dramatic way when he rolled Raphael to be pinned beneath him.

"We win!" Leo shouted in agreement, throwing himself on top of Raphael as well, flashing him a smug grin that was returned by an outraged glare.

"Get off me!"

"No way!" shouted Mashimi in reply, having a little trouble keeping the stronger Raphael pinned down and only managing because of his larger size and Leo's help. Though a year older with his six years, Mashimi wasn't nearly as strong as his five year old turtle brothers. "Not until you apologize to Leo for tripping him this morning!"

"Will…not!" Raph grunted, struggling to get up even though he didn't stand much of a chance against two opponents.

"Yeah you will, or we'll tickle you to death!" came Mashimi's immediate retort. He didn't waste time waiting for a reply however and immediately reached for the turtle's weak spots, tickling him through the red shirt he wore.

Unable to help himself Raph started to laugh though he didn't give up his efforts to free himself. He managed to free his arms from the larger human boy and used them to shove Leo off of him, diminishing the load keeping him down on the floor.

"Ow!" Leo said as he landed on the floor then glared at Raph, "Say you're sorry for trippin' me, Raphael!"

"No!" Raph managed to shout in between bouts of giggles, "You can't make me!"

"Yes we can!"

"Get off!"

"What is going on?!"

Suddenly all three children froze on the spot and looked up at the towering furry figure frowning down at them. Mashimi hesitated for just a moment before quickly scrambling backwards to let Raphael get up, which the turtle boy did. Leonardo climbed back to his feet as well, quickly brushing his blue shirt with a white rabbit face to remove any possible dirt it might have collected, then clasped his hands behind his back trying to look innocent, and failing miserably.

"We were teaching Raphael a lesson, uncle Splinter," Mashimi said in his best innocent voice, his eyes wide to add to the effect. Leo envied him that trick, though Mikey was better at it, it looked more real on his older brother. Splinter however could not be fooled.

"And what lesson would that be, Mashimi?"

"It was 'cause of me, uncle Splinter," Leo piped up, unwilling to have his brother take the blame for something that was his fault. After all, it was Leo's own fault he had trouble standing up to Raph's teasing, wasn't it? Splinter shifted his unreadable gaze on the little turtle wearing the blue shirt and Leo gulped. How to explain without telling on Raphael?

"Raph tripped Leo, uncle Splinter, so we wanted him to apologize to him," Mashimi explained before Leo could think of something to say. He watched the tall rat in the blue sleeveless Utrom uniform apprehensively, and saw how he raised an eyebrow at Raphael.

"Did you trip Leonardo, Raphael?"

The young turtle in the red shirt didn't answer and instead looked away, his hands fidgeting.

"Why did you do that, Raphael?" Splinter asked then, correctly reading the answer to his first question from the little turtle's reluctance to meet his eyes.

"'Cause I wanted to…" Raphael muttered, and Leo was sure nobody was supposed to be able to hear that: a very unwise move in the presence of a rat with extremely good hearing. Leo crossed his arms and gave Raph his best disapproving gaze.

Splinter didn't reply or move however and Leo looked up at his face, trying to read what he would do or say next, would Raph get punished or not? He wished Splinter would just hurry up and say something already!

"Mashimi, Leonardo, please leave us. I need to speak to Raphael in private."

Leonardo let his breath out all at once, surprised. "But uncle Splinter…!" he started, however the rat held up a hand and Leo fell silent. Letting his shoulders slump he turned around and followed the taller human boy out of the room in silence.

His gaze on the floor Leo would have continued walking along the hallway towards the kitchen but a tap on his shoulder made him stop and look up at his brother who was motioning for him to be silent. Mashimi was not only a year older, but also a head taller than his turtle brother, something he tended to use to his advantage whenever he could but this time he crouched down and whispered quietly, "Wait, Leo, don't you want to hear what they're going to say?"

Leo looked back where they had just come from. Splinter had closed the door after they had left the room and as it was evening all he could see was a bright line of light underneath it. Mashimi however didn't wait for a reply and quietly walked back to the door.

"Shimi, wait!" Leo whispered and hurried after him, taking care to make no other sound though.

Standing side by side the two young boys listened intently to the muffled voices coming from the other side of the door.

"…own responsibility, Raphael!" Splinter said, his voice reasonable, but only barely.

"I know!" answered the young turtle in red, pouting as he did so. "I just…I didn't want…" He trailed off without finishing his sentence however, his eyes still staring straight at the floor in front of his feet.

Splinter sighed and got up from the couch where he had sat down. Raphael had declined the invitation to sit beside him, preferring to stubbornly remain standing where he was. Getting down to kneel on one knee Splinter placed a hand on Raphael's shoulder as he tried to make the boy meet his gaze, "Just tell me, Raphael, I can not help you if you do not tell me what is wrong."

The turtle boy exhaled angrily but he finally lifted his eyes and searched Splinter's gaze. Whatever he looked for he found it, because Splinter felt the boy's muscles relax beneath his hand. Trying not to look too expectant the rat remained as he was, patiently waiting.

"I didn' want Leo and Shimi to know I wanna learn ninjitsu too…" he finally muttered, his eyes going down once more.

This knowledge didn't come as a complete surprise to the rat, though he was surprised to hear Raphael admit to it.

"But, Raphael, master Yoshi asked you and your brothers whether you wished to learn ninjitsu as well. Donatello and Michelangelo said yes, while you said you did not care for it at all."

Splinter was paraphrasing as Raphael had received a severe reprimand for his actual reply, and he did not wish to repeat it. Oddly enough Raphael seemed annoyed at these words, like it explained everything. When it was obvious Splinter did not see the logic however, the boy balled his hands into fists once more.

"That's jus' it, uncle Splinter! Father asked us if _we_ wanted to learn! But when he started teachin' Leo and Shimi, he told them _he_ wanted them to learn! He doesn't care whether we learn or not, he only asked us 'cause Mikey told mom he thought it would be fun to join Shimi an' Leo. She made him ask us, he didn' really want us there! He already has you and his two perfect sons, he doesn' need the rest of us anymore!"

His speech had come out faster and faster until Raphael was almost stumbling over his words, breathing heavily and holding back a sob. Now he was glaring at Splinter, challenging him to deny it, three fingered fists by his sides.

Splinter ears drooped a little at the sight, which made Raphael lift his chin in turn.

"So I'm not gonna do ninjitsu like the super brother an' I don' care if I'm the only one who doesn't!" This time his voice did break on the last few words.

Splinter kneeled down, reached out and gently pulled the turtle boy closer and sat him down on his lap. Raphael surprisingly didn't resist and instead grabbed a hold of Splinter's dark blue tunic, and burrowed his face in it. Splinter let him for a few moments, patting his shell, then gently pushed him back so he could look him in the eye. Raph quickly wiped his eyes with a fist.

"Raphael, you seem to have misunderstood your father's intentions. It is his dream for all his sons to follow in his footsteps, but he does not wish to push you to do something if you have no wish for it."

The turtle boy did not object and claim it to be untrue, instead he rubbed an eye with his fist again and pressed his lips together, waiting for whatever would be said next. Splinter took this to be a good a sign. Still, he wished he did not have to reveal the next bit, though he was sure if he did not the boy would not believe him.

"The reason he wished for Leonardo and Mashimi to start their training before the rest of you is not because their skills are more developed, nor because he favors them over his other sons, but because they had tried to teach themselves."

"Huh?"

"It is not my place to guess at their motives, but your brothers thought they would be able to learn ninjitsu by themselves. This is not a safe thing to do as one needs guidance to learn the true skills of a ninja and…"

"Wait…" Raph interrupted, an odd look in his eyes, "You sayin' Leo an' Shimi getting trainin'…is their _punishment_?!"

Splinter blinked. He was fairly sure he hadn't said that.

"So them pretendin' to be great an' all is just fake?!"

"Ehm, no, Raphael. I am not sure we are still speaking of the same thing. Your brothers learning ninjitsu is not a punishment, it is an honor. I simply meant to say that master Yoshi felt that to ensure their own safety it was time to start their training sooner than he had planned."

A small smug smile was spreading on Raphael's face and Splinter wondered about the wisdom of having told the child all of this. "Raphael, this is not something you should hold against your brothers, they did not know any better. And if I am not mistaken, you did trip Leonardo this morning, risking giving him an injury." Having changed his voice to sound as serious as possible Splinter was pleased to see the child's face sober up. The last thing he wanted was for him to tease his older brothers.

"I'm sorry, I didn' mean it," Raphael said softly, showing his honesty by bowing his head. As the child was an awful liar Splinter knew he meant it.

"So does this mean you do wish to join your brothers in practice in the dojo every morning?"

Raphael started to enthusiastically nod his head but then seemed to hesitate, "But how do I tell dad?"

Before Splinter could reply they heard a voice on the other side of the door.

"What are you two doing here?"

The muffled voice unmistakably belonged to Yoshi, so neither occupant of the room was surprised to see him when the door suddenly opened. What did surprise them were the two boys who came tumbling inside, obviously caught while eavesdropping.

"Leo! Shimi!"

Raph was glaring at the two boys who had whipped their heads around at the sound of his voice. But then the red wearing turtle remembered everything he had just heard, and relaxed his fists. A small knowing smile showed on his face now instead.

"Splinter? What is going on?" Yoshi asked. He was wearing the same blue uniform outfit as Splinter, but he also wore a golden medallion around his neck that indicated his higher rank among the Utrom guardians. Two sword handles could be seen poking from behind his shoulders as he wore his weapons crossed on his back. He was holding two more identical swords tucked beneath his right arm.

The rat gently removed the child from his lap to stand up and give Yoshi a respectful bow. "Raphael and I were discussing some recent events. And I believe he has something to say to you now."

Blinking, Raphael looked at first Splinter, then his two brothers who hadn't picked themselves up off of the floor yet, and finally Yoshi.

"Father, I didn' mean it when I said ninjitsu was for…when I said all those things. I do wanna learn how to be a ninja like you and uncle Splinter!"

Whatever it was Yoshi had been expecting, it obviously hadn't been this as surprise made his eyebrows shoot up. After a moment of studying Raphael's face Yoshi handed the extra set of twin swords he had been holding to Splinter, not taking his eyes off of Raphael, and kneeled in front of the little turtle boy on one knee, leaning his hands on the other knee.

"I am happy to hear you did not mean it after all, Raphael."

The boy blushed a bit and looked away for a moment, then decisively looked back up again, "I'm sorry, dad."

Yoshi reached out with a hand and roughly rubbed the boy's head, making Raph giggle in surprise.

"You are forgiven, my son. I would be honored to have you in our class, starting tomorrow morning before your other lessons."

Raph beamed up at him, then seemed to think of something. He tried to look as serious as possible, lowered his arms to hold them stiffly at his sides and bowed as he had seen Splinter and Yoshi do to each other so very often in his short life.

Yoshi smiled and managed to keep a chuckle from coming out by lowering his head for a moment. Then he got up to his feet again, and returned the bow.

"As for those two however…" Splinter spoke up again, now wearing the twin swords he had been handed crossed on his back as well and looked at Leonardo and Mashimi. Yoshi turned around and frowned. Both boys let their head hang guiltily.

"Five flips tomorrow morning at the start of class," was all he said. The boys groaned at the sentencing, but secretly were rather relieved it wasn't something worse.

"We have to go, Splinter, the others will be waiting for us," the tall man then declared and the rat gave a nod in return. "Be good, my sons and listen to your mother," Yoshi said by way of farewell, and as he passed each boy he gave them a gentle rub on the head. Splinter gave Raphael a small wink before following Yoshi, and a look of warning to the other two. Then the two adults were gone and the boys were left staring at each other.

Mashimi came shuffling into the room towards Raph, Leo quickly following him with a troubled look on his face. It made Raph consider a possible punishment for them for a few moments, but then decided the best way to rub it in would be to be the responsible _mature_ one.

"I'm sorry I tripped ya, Leo," he finally said, "It was mean, an' I shouldn' have done it."

The looks on their faces made it all worth it. It almost looked like their eyes were going to pop out! Then Raph ruined it all by smiling smugly, making Mashimi glare at him and Leo roll his eyes. They all opened their mouths for a shouting match when they were interrupted by another voice calling them from the door.

"Guys! Mom made cookies an' they're almost completely cooled off already!"

They all turned to look at the excited face of their youngest brother Michelangelo as he hopped from one foot to the other in his yellow and orange striped shirt, waiting expectantly for them with a big grin on his face. They three boys shared a look, then as one ran for the door. Mikey laughed loudly and quickly turned to run back to the kitchen before he could get run over by his brothers.

Like a wild pack the four boys rushed into the kitchen, by now all smiling and yelling excitedly as the unmistakable smell of fresh cookies had reached their noses.

"Calm down, my sons!" Tang Shen laughed when she saw them, "You will still have to wait a few more minutes!"

They all took a chair around the large table, joining Donatello who sat deep in thought as he was staring at a book, a pencil twirling in his hand. He was wearing a purple shirt with white stripes and longer sleeves than the other three.

"Whatcha doing, Donnie?" Leo asked him curiously, sitting on his knees on a chair so he could lean forwards on the table and get a better look at whatever his brother was doing.

"Homework," was the only reply he got.

"Huh? We already did our homework this afternoon, Donnie," Raphael reminded him, suddenly a bit unsure and wondering whether he had maybe forgotten to do something. He sat down at the other side of the table next to Leonardo.

"That's not our homework," Mashimi said with a frown. He was sitting next to Donatello and was looking at the pages.

"The Utroms gave it to me," Donatello said, putting down the pencil as it became obvious he wouldn't be left alone and looked up, "One of Leatherhead's teachers asked me if I could do it. Apparently Leatherhead did these exercises when he was our age."

Silence met these words as it sunk in.

"Can you do em?" Leo finally asked softly.

Donatello picked up the pencil again and brought it to his mouth to chew on, "They're hard."

"Lemme look," Mashimi demanded, but only extended his hand and didn't grab the book from the turtle boy. At a cough from Tang Shen he quickly added "please".

Donatello silently nudged it towards his eldest brother, his face a frown as he was still thinking over whatever problem he was struggling with. Mashimi slid the book in front of him, Leo and Raph craning their neck from the other side of the table so they could catch a glance as well. Mikey had been there when Donnie received the book so he'd already had plenty of opportunity to look through it. He sat grinning on Donatello's other side, swinging his legs back and forth, "It's really hard guys, I didn't understand any of it! But Donnie did almost all of the questions he was supposed to do already!"

Mashimi was still frowning at the pages, flipping forward a few pages then going back again. Finally he shoved the book back at Donatello without a word. It was no secret that he felt that being the oldest he should also be the smartest. Instead Donatello could read better than he could, write many more words correctly, and even solved harder math problems than he could. The words written in this book however were very hard, and the problems needing to be solved made no sense to the boy, yet his younger sibling had almost done them all already?

"They look hard," Mashimi muttered when his mother lifted an eyebrow at him.

"Yeah, they are," Donatello agreed without looking up or even having noticed the bitter tone, "This one is asking to put all the words in alphabetic order."

Mikey leaned closer, peered at the assignment in question and frowned, "But Donnie, all the words start with an "A" already! And they're _really_ long too…!"

"Gotta look at the other letters," Donatello muttered absently as he took the pencil from his mouth and started to scribble a few words on the page.

"But Donnie, can you even _read_ those words?!" Raphael demanded from the other side of the table..

Apparently surprised at the question Don looked up at him, then back at the book, "You don't have to be able to read the word to put it in the right place. It's kinda like numbers. You can put numbers in any order and they'll still make sense. Same here, they could have put the letters in any order they wanted, 'cause it wouldn't have changed the problem you need to solve. You don't work with the _words_, you gotta work with the _letters_." Spotting something he quickly wrote something down, then frowned for a few moments, and finally grinned up at all of them, "Done!"

He slammed the pencil on the table and twisted in his seat to look at Tang Shen, "Mom, could you check it, please?"

"Of course, Donatello. And the cookies have cooled down enough now, you may all eat one."

A general cheer went up at this as they all eagerly reached for the plate Tang Shen placed in the middle of the table, each taking a large cookie in the shape of a star. Their mother gently rescued Donatello's assignment book from the sudden chaos as the boys compared their cookies to each other, arguing about who had picked the biggest one.

"They're all the same size," Tang Shen offered, but the boys either didn't hear her or didn't think that statement was important to their discussion.

"Hey Shimi, look!" Leo suddenly exclaimed excitedly, holding his star shaped cookie up in front of him, "They look like the shukiren father showed us yesterday!"

"Huh? No, it's shuriken, Leo!" Mashimi laughed.

"Right, that's what I said!" Leonardo said defensively, glancing at Raph for a moment to see if he would laugh at him for the slip up before focusing his attention on his cookie again. "See, if you take off one bit…" Leo broke off one of the star's legs, popping it absently in his mouth, "…then it phwooks jus' phwike it!"

"Do not speak with your mouth full, Leo," Tang Shen said without looking up from the book in her hands.

Mashimi followed his example and started to giggle when he regarded his "shuriken cookie".

"What's a shuriken?" Raph asked, annoyed he didn't understand what they were talking about.

"It's a weapon father showed us yesterday during training," Mashimi started.

"They're really small, but really cool!" Mikey stated.

"You gotta throw it at the enemy," Leo explained.

"…But we're not allowed to use or even touch them yet," Donatello added in a voice of warning.

"And if you boys so much as even think about throwing these cookies around, I will never make any more!" Tang Shen finished loudly.

The boys all giggled at this and settled back into their chairs to eat their cookies. They all broke off one of the star's legs first however, because it was fun to pretend they were holding a real ninja weapon. Glancing around at each other the brothers all agreed to this in silence.

After having finished their cookies they remained in the kitchen for a few more minutes as Tang Shen continued to review Donatello's work while leaning against the kitchen counter. When she finished she crouched down next to Donatello and pointed out a mistake he had made. He frowned as she explained what he had done wrong, nodding here and there in understanding. The serious look remained on his face even as he took the book back from her and started to correct his mistake. Once he was done Tang Shen announced it was time for bed.

"Tomorrow I gotta ask Leatherhead how many mistakes he made when he did these," Donatello decided as he followed his brothers to their bedrooms.

"Donnie, you only made one mistake! And we all agreed that everything looked very hard!" Mikey exclaimed to cheer his brother up.

"Well, not _that_ hard!" Mashimi said, "Because then even Donnie wouldn' have been able to do any!"

"He would too!" Mikey countered, "He's the smartest ever!"

Donatello quickly intervened before a shouting match could erupt, "I'm not that smart, Mikey. If I was I wouldn't have tried to do everythin' so fast, and then I wouldn't have read the question all wrong, and I would have gotten the answer right. It was a silly mistake."

Once they had brushed their teeth and switched their t-shirts and other clothing respectively for their pjs, they all headed to their bedrooms. Up until a year ago all five of them had shared a room but their parents had decided they were getting too boisterous at night, and thus were split up. Mashimi, Leonardo and Donatello shared one room, and Michelangelo and Raphael another.

Wishing each other good night they disappeared into their rooms, crawled into their beds, and waited to be tucked in. Once Tang Shen had given the last kiss good night all the lights were turned off. For almost a whole minute there was only silence in both rooms. Almost.

"Raph's gonna join us with trainin' tomorrow," Mashimi whispered.

"Really?" Don whispered back. His bed was on the opposite side of the room from Mashimi's, and Leo's bed stood against a wall in between the two of them.

"Yeah, he really wanted to join us from the start, he just…" Leo hesitated, wondering how much he should reveal from what he had overheard, "He just didn't think we wanted him there." It was close enough to the truth.

"See? I told you Raph could never have meant those things he said!" Donatello whispered back triumphantly.

"I wonder how good he'll be," Mashimi wondered.

Two quick knocks then sounded on the wall, followed by a slight pause and then a third. Their secret knocking code for "somebody is coming". Leo, whose bed stood against the wall separating their room from their brothers' quickly knocked "understood" back. They all remained silent then as they now heard the telltale swishing in the hallway of their mother's dress. She must be checking whether they were quiet or not. After a couple of minutes of not hearing anything anymore three quick knocks sounded on the wall. Leo quickly copied the knocks, wishing his brothers in the other room a "good night" back. It was one thing to say it to each other in the hallways, but it meant so much more when it was said in secret knocking code. Silence finally reigned in the two bedrooms.

* * *

**A/N: When talking about the "blue Utrom uniform" I'm talking about the uniform Yoshi wore in the 2k3 toon in the episode "Tale of Master Yoshi", which Splinter himself also wore in the opening of the episode "Exodus part 1" (ok, Splinter only wore it in a vision there, but at least it gives an idea of what he looks like wearing the thing XD ) Anyway, leave a review and let me know what you think. Critique is also still welcome if you think you caught something that could use improvement.**


	10. Nighttime Guardians

Nighttime Guardians

**A/N: This chapter is new as I wanted to put something between the previous and the coming chapter. Enjoy! (And yes, going to the bathroom is a really convenient excuse to use :p)**

Rapahel made sure not to make any noise as he got out of bed, careful so he wouldn't wake up Mikey and slowly made his way through the darkness in their shared bedroom. Their room was rather small, almost half in size compared to the one shared by their three brothers. This meant that every sound each of them made was hard to hide from the other, and ninja stealth wasn't a part of their training just yet.

Six year old Raphael reached the window and halted to cast a quick peek behind him in the darkness at his brother's bed. No sound came. Satisfied the young turtle hoisted himself up to the window seat and made himself comfortable by leaning against the glass. It wasn't really glass though, he smiled and stroked it fondly. It was a special invention from the Utroms. Raph wasn't too sure how it worked, but he'd asked Donnie about it privately one day, and from what he had understood of his brother's explanation it worked like a window from their side, but only showed a projection from the outside. He hadn't quite believed it, nor entirely understood Don's description of it all until he had been able to witness it himself on one of those evenings they were allowed to go outside. He and Mikey had taken turns waving at each other from inside while the other looked at the window outside, and every single time it had looked like there was no one there. Mikey had sworn he had been waving like mad at him but all Raph could see were some vague, non-moving shapes behind some thick, gauzy curtains. Those curtains still hung in front of every window of their house, but they were no longer closed all the time. These new windows had given them the chance to really be able to look outside. Not that this window gave an all that spectacular view however as their bedroom faced an alley and beyond that a tall brick wall, but at least it was better than the other window next to it that led to the fire escape, which pretty much blocked their entire view from even the boring alley. But even so, he could just sit here and look outside without having to worry about being seen or having his parents or uncle scold him for peeking out.

Raphael looked up, pressing his cheek against the not-glass. If he angled his head just right, he could see a glimpse of the night sky overhead. It was impossible to see any stars, but he liked to pretend he could see them twinkle above. The big open sky that stretched over so much land, way beyond even the furthest Utrom hideout he had ever been to even. Who knew what it looked like over there and what kind of people walked those streets. It was great that they could now finally look outside freely but he sometimes wished these special windows could help him see further than the alley wall.

Suddenly he frowned and narrowed his eyes just a tiny bit. Was it just his imagination or had he really just seen something move up there? Blinking a couple of times and then rubbing his eyes with his fists for good measure, he looked again. Nothing moved. Sighing Raphael relaxed again. Must have been his imagination, what else could explain dark shapes leaping from one rooftop to the next?

Mikey tried to keep quiet and not move as he watched his brother sitting in the window seat. Raph thought he was sleeping and truthfully he had been, but then a bad dream woke him up rather suddenly. Judging from Raphael's lack of any reaction he must have not made any sounds while doing so. Mikey could see him staring up through the window, apparently completely lost in thought.

Trying to steady his quick breathing Mikey struggled to decide his next move. What he really wanted was for Raph to go back to bed so he could crawl in under the covers with him. The best medicine against any bad dream was sharing a cozy bed with a loving family member. Not many people would use that word to describe his brother sitting by the window, but as long as Mikey didn't make a fuss, didn't complain and promised to go right to sleep Raph would let him sleep in his bed after a bad dream. He really was a good brother, even if he was grumpy most of the time, and called him a baby when he woke up scared. Mikey made a face at the thought.

Still struggling with the decision on whether he should let Raph know he was awake or not, Mikey saw him tense up for a moment while still looking outside. Had he seen something? Mikey shifted nervously as he thought about burglars, then tensed when he saw his brother's head snap towards him. Enough light streamed in from outside to provide a look at Raph's frowning features.

"I had a nightmare…" Mikey blurted out, quickly adding a pitiful whine to his voice. Raphael sighed.

"Is it jus' me or are you having more an' more bad dreams lately?"

Mikey could see his brother's silhouette jump down from the window seat and walk back towards his own bed. Mikey started to sit up.

"Forget it, Mikey, I wanna get some sleep."

Michelangelo froze with one leg dangling over the edge of his bed, feeling hurt. Raph didn't want him to come over? But he wanted some comforting, he was still a bit scared!

"But Raaaph…!" he whispered in his best heartbreaking voice he could muster, but instantly knew he shouldn't have.

"Shut up, Mikey, go to sleep!" came the fierce whisper back.

Wincing once more Mikey let his head hang. He should have known better. Raph was willing to accommodate him as long as he didn't go all dramatic. There was no way Raph was going to so much as speak to him now, let alone let him sleep in his bed. Sighing Mikey turned his head to look at the door and after a last glance at his brother's bed, hopped to the floor and quietly made his way to the hallway.

Creeping along on the soft carpet the young turtle made his way to the next door and paused in front of it, biting his lower lip in thought. Would he have better luck with one of his other brothers? Shimi surely would not only call him a baby but also lecture him. Leo might comfort him and make him feel better, but he probably wouldn't let him stay. Donnie would be nice to him, but Mikey was also pretty sure he wouldn't be able to sneak over to Don without one of his other two brothers waking up. No, this was definitely not a good idea.

On he went, walking on his toes to minimize any sound he could make up the stairs to the next floor. Here was his parent's bedroom as well as uncle Splinter's next to it. Mikey was pretty sure his dad and uncle Splinter hadn't come home yet from nighttime patrolling, so he passed the first door and opened the one to his parent's bedroom. Sure enough he heard some rustling coming from the bed as he closed the door behind him and moved inside.

"Yoshi?" came his mother's sleepy voice and Mikey smiled as he quickly ran over and climbed up the bed.

"Nope!"

"Michelangelo."

It was just an acknowledgement. There was no judging, no disappointment, just his name.

"I had a bad dream, mom," Mikey said, finding he didn't need to twist his voice this time to sound sad. He almost instantly felt two arms draw him closer and he gratefully leaned into them.

* * *

Leonardo was sure he had heard something outside of their bedroom door. He lifted his head and squinted his eyes to look at the slightly brighter line beneath the door but could not detect any movement. He sat up and considered for a moment, then quietly slipped out of bed and tiptoed to the door. Or that had been his intention until he suddenly felt his left foot bump into something that didn't budge at all, and let out a little yelp as he tumbled forwards to the floor. Turning over so was sitting down he threw one hand over his mouth he used the other to rub his smarting foot. What was that?!

"Wha was tha? …Leo?"

A light was turned on and Leo felt temporarily blinded but didn't have a hand left to cover his eyes. Quickly he squeezed them shut and turned away from Mashimi's side of the room. The older boy had turned on the little lamp on his nightstand and was now rubbing his own eyes.

"Whas going on?" came Donatello's sleepy voice when the light woke him up as well.

Leo took a deep breath and glanced at his brothers, carefully putting his foot back down and removing his hand from his mouth. Suddenly he felt silly for having gotten up to investigate something that had probably just been a part of his imagination. He should have stayed in bed.

"I was going to…to the bathroom and bumped into…" Leo looked down and identified a stack of rather heavy books. "…into your books, Don," he finished in a slightly accusing tone. He gave his brother a slight glare and saw him look down at the unmistakable proof right in front of Leo's feet. Leo felt a bit guilty when he saw Don's eyes widen.

"Sorry, Leo! Are you ok?"

Leo shrugged, "I bumped my foot. I didn't know they were there…"

"Duh, Donatello should have put them away before he went to bed," Mashimi whispered and there was nothing slight in the accusing tone in his voice. "What if Leo really _had_ hurt himself!"

"I'm really sorry, Leo," Don mumbled, avoiding his eyes as he quickly scrambled out of bed and hurried to pick up the books to put them away in his bookcase where they belonged. He had to make two trips as the books were rather large and heavy. Something Leo's foot could confirm.

"It's ok, really," Leo said, feeling more than just a bit silly now. A ninja doesn't walk into things in the dark after all, he stealths through the night in perfect balance with complete control and knowledge of his environment. He gave Mashimi a small glare. The older boy didn't respond to it as he was glaring himself at Don.

"Is your foot ok, Leo? Want me to take a look at it?"

Leo turned back to look at Donatello as he approached him. By now his eyes had fully adjusted to the little light in their bedroom.

"Nah, I don't even feel it anymore," Leo lied, seeing relief on his brother's face as he said this. He really shouldn't worry his brothers so much about little insignificant things like this. Tripping over stuff was not that dramatic, they did it all the time. Especially Mikey. And while his foot did still sting a little, it wasn't worth the fuss. He accepted Donatello's hand to help him up from the floor.

"You think you're a doctor now, Don?" Came Mashimi's voice again, "Thinking you can cure a hurt foot?" Both turtles turned to look at him as their brother leaned on an elbow with a tight grin.

"What? No, I…" Don started to defend himself, and Leo saw his expression turn to one of frustration.

"He was just worried, Shimi," Leo quickly interrupted. For a few seconds he and his older brother stared at each other. Leo looked away first.

"Didn' you say you were gonna go to the bathroom?"

Leo looked at the door and gave a little nod, "Yeah. I'll be right back." As he started to walk he couldn't help but feel a slight pain shoot through his foot. He managed to hide it however until he reached the door, there a slight stumble escaped him. He quickly looked over his shoulder to see if his brothers had seen. Don had his back turned towards the door but Mashimi was staring directly at him with a little smug smile that was instantly directed at his other brother.

"You see! Leo _is_ hurt!"

Leo winced and was about to talk when he saw the stricken look on Donatello's face change to one of anger as Mashimi continued throwing accusations at him. Leo sighed and decided to just keep walking. He closed the door behind him to cut off the heated whispers and limped to the bathroom in the darkness while holding out a hand to feel for the wall so he wouldn't stumble into it.

Once he reached the door he stopped. It had just been an excuse after all, he didn't really need to go. Frowning he tried to decide what to do as his eyes wandered to the staircase leading up to the next level. Turning towards it he slowly went upstairs, keeping a tight grip on the railing as he tried not to wince with every step. It went very slow.

Reaching the top he carefully walked to the second door and was about to open it when his hand froze in the air. He listened carefully to the soft voices coming from inside. One was definitely his mother and the other…Mikey? Straining he tried to hear what they were saying but the door blocked him effectively. Lowering his arm he looked around. He didn't want to go in there if his little brother was there, even if his foot did sorta hurt more than he'd been willing to admit to his brothers. No, he wasn't gonna go to his mother now, he could wait till morning. Yes, a ninja was strong and could not be stopped by a small injury A ninja endured the pain until he could finish his mission. Ok, so Leo didn't exactly have a mission, but still. He could endure till morning.

With a last longing glance at the door he slowly made his way back to the stairs but right as he passed uncle Splinter's bedroom door he thought he heard someone come up. Surprised the young turtle stopped and narrowed his eyes to peer into the darkness. Suddenly he felt a furry hand on his shoulder and jumped.

"Uncle Splinter!" he breathed as he looked up into the rat's face.

"Leonardo, what are you doing here at such a late hour?"

Shrugging a bit Leo tried to decide how much to reveal. He'd just decided to be a strong enduring ninja after all.

"Come," Splinter said when he didn't give a reply right away and gently guided him through the door they were standing next to. Instantly it became obvious Leo was limping and the boy felt the hand on his shoulder tighten for a moment.

"Are you hurt?" came the worried question the moment Splinter had closed the door behind them and turned on the light.

Leo shrugged, then after a look at Splinter's face he nodded, "Sorta, but just a little, uncle Splinter, it's nothing. I bumped my foot and now it hurts a little."

Splinter guided him to a couch and helped him sit down on it. His uncle's bed was more of a cushioned mat on the floor with plenty of pillows and a cover to keep him warm at night, but it didn't make for a good place to sit down on.

"Let me see," Splinter said as he kneeled in front of him and gently lifted his foot.

Leo observed him for a few moments as the rat quietly examined his foot. His uncle obviously had only just come home as his blue uniform was showing a few smudges. It was pretty much the only garment his uncle wore, but he always took care to wear a clean outfit. Leo wished he had a uniform like that, just like his father and uncle. He wondered what they did exactly at night, they never really revealed that much about it except that they sometimes "patrolled", whatever that meant. But they also said they sometimes stayed and worked at a Utrom base, or helped train new guardians.

It still sounded pretty exciting to Leo and wished he could get them to tell him more about it. But they never did. Leo had even asked Leatherhead about it but apparently their friend didn't really know that much about the Utrom guardians either. He sometimes saw them practice at the base he lived at however and at Leo's encouragement had described it in as much detail as he could recall. Now Leo liked to pretend he was one of the trainees, learning from his father as he stood at the head of the class while they practiced in the dojo downstairs. He was sure the other trainees looked up to his dad and uncle as much as he and his brothers did. Maybe they were even jealous of them, wishing they had a dad and uncle like them!

"It seems like you did not injure yourself too badly, Leonardo," Splinter spoke up and Leo jumped. Blinking for a moment as he returned from his imagination, he then gave his uncle a sheepish smile which was returned by a small knowing one.

"If you do not lean too much on it now, you should feel much better by the morning."

Leonardo nodded relieved.

"Come, I will help you return to your bedroom," Splinter continued as he got back up and reached towards him to pick him up.

For a moment Leo hesitated. He didn't want to be carried like a baby, especially if his brothers could see him, but then he put his arms around Splinter's neck. Who cared. He was hurt after all. Well, sorta anyway. And to be honest, he was feeling pretty tired all of a sudden. Sitting here all relaxed like this while fondly thinking about the Utrom guardians had made him sleepy.

"Thanks, uncle Splinter," he mumbled as he put his head on the rat's shoulder.

* * *

"I didn't hurt Leo on purpose, Shimi! Stop making it sound like I did!" To Don's embarrassment his voice trembled as he said this.

It really wasn't fair, couldn't he do anything right? When they practiced in the dojo he was always the slowest to learn a new move. He could remember it better, but it took him longer to perform it as well as his brothers. When it came to homework it took him longest to finish it. Granted, he had twice as much as his brothers due to an advance course his Utrom teachers had put him on but he was still the last one to leave the table when they did their homework while he was sure he was the fastest. And when it came to normal everyday things it was like his oldest brother just loved to point out every single mistake he made.

It really didn't help that Don was secretly agreeing with him this time. While he hadn't seen Leo limp as he left the room, he had suspected he'd been lying when he said he was alright. Don had hoped Leo wasn't too hurt if he'd willing to lie about it, but now that he was gone longer than it should have taken him to go to the bathroom he was starting to feel guilty again.

"Maybe you didn't hurt him on purpose, but you shoulda known something bad would happen if you leave those stupid books lying around like that, Don," Mashimi retorted.

"They're not stupid, Shimi! They're math books, and explain how you can use…"

"Who cares," Mashimi cut him off before he could properly explain how useful and exciting his current reading material was. Frustrated he glared at his brother.

"I'm sorry!"

How could he properly explain to his brother that he really was sorry, very sorry. That he didn't mean to always be the slowest the others had to wait for so they could play together. And that he doesn't mean to be boring when he's trying to explain what he's learning about with his Utrom teachers, though he did think it was a little mean when one of them started to yawn while he was talking.

Mashimi was giving a look that said he wasn't convinced he meant it. Frustrated Don sighed and walked to the door.

"Where you going?"

"I'm gonna check on Leo. He's been gone too long, maybe he's…" Hurt. Don's anger melted away and was replaced by worry as he walked a little faster. He ignored the last few comments whispered by his brother and closed their bedroom door before hurrying to the bathroom.

Opening the door he saw it was completely dark inside. Surprised he flicked on the light and looked around. Leo definitely wasn't here. With one hand still on the door handle he rubbed his neck with his other. So if Leo wasn't here, then where was he…?

"Donatello?"

He looked over his shoulder to see his father standing there, looking at him with a questioning gaze.

"What are you doing here, my son?"

"Oh, I'm sorta looking for Leo, father. He said he was going to the bathroom…" His father moved behind him so he could look inside as well. "But he's not here."

At that same moment they could hear Splinter's voice from upstairs, clearly saying Leonardo's name. They both looked towards the stairs. Don felt relief, then smiled sheepishly when his father crossed his arms and smiled down at him knowingly.

"Oh."

"You were worried, Donatello?"

Don nodded and looked down. He didn't really want to explain why he'd been worried. Obviously this was the wrong move to make as his father knelt down on one knee in front of him, his brow furrowed as he made eye contact.

"What is wrong, my son?"

Donatello had no ready answer for this so he just shrugged. When it became clear a more verbal answer was expected he added, "Nothing, father. I guess I'll go back to bed now." But though he looked at his bedroom door he made no move towards it. Mashimi was probably waiting for him and he didn't feel like continuing their argument.

Yoshi followed his gaze before looking back at him again, his expression slightly puzzled. Don looked away.

"I believe something _is _wrong, Donatello," his father said softly and moved to reach for him.

Donatello shifted away from his hand. "I hurt Leo," he whispered. Carefully he glanced up to see how his father would respond to this. He saw clear surprise on his father's face.

"What? You did what?"

Donatello could not remember ever having heard his father sound so flustered. He let go of the door handle and clasped his hands together nervously as he looked away, "I hurt Leo, and I'm really sorry!" he continued in a still unsteady voice.

His father still looked unsure, his mouth open as if he was going to say something but nothing came out. Suddenly he closed his mouth and got back up. Startled Donatello looked up at him, his heart skipping a beat.

"This is no place to talk," Yoshi said and turned off the light in the bathroom and closed the door. "Here, come with me," he continued and Donatello felt his hand being taken.

His father guided Don away towards the stairs leading downstairs. It was completely dark again now that the light had been turned off and Donatello was grateful his father slowed down and tightened his grip on his hand for support. They steadily made their way down but when Don finally reached the bottom he felt his father guiding him away from the living area he'd assumed he was taking him to, and instead moved towards the dojo. Swallowing Don looked up at his father though he couldn't see him very clearly in the dark. The dojo was still off limits unless they were practicing, and thus remained an official place for serious business. Was his father going to punish him?

Turning on the lights inside the dojo Yoshi moved inside while still holding Don's hand. The young turtle blinked a few times against the sudden light, then glanced around. It still looked the same like it did every day, yet it didn't. It was too quiet. Too serious. He looked up at his father again when he released his hand. Yoshi kneeled down on a mat and Donatello automatically kneeled in front of him, student before the teacher, and bowed his head.

"Tell me what happened."

* * *

Raphael turned his head a little bit towards the wall. He heard the door open in his brothers' bedroom. He'd been hearing a few sounds every now and then since Mikey left and it was starting to get a bit annoying. There'd even been some quiet talking on the other side of the wall he thought, meaning his other three brothers were up as well, probably having fun and talking about things they wouldn't share with him. He hit the mattress he was lying on, but it neatly collapsed beneath his fist and molded to the shape of his hand. Stupid Utrom invention to support their shells…

Sighing he turned to his side and glared into the darkness. Mikey probably wasn't going to be coming back any time soon, his other three brothers were doing who knew what, and here he was all alone and unable to fall asleep. He heard the door close again and rolled his eyes. Now where were they going? After a moment he made a decision and bolted out of his bed, charging to the door and flung it open with the intention of catching them coming outside. His eyes had already adjusted to the dark and as he looked to the side, expecting to see one or more of his brothers, he only saw his uncle Splinter about to go upstairs. Surprised the turtle stopped and stared. Splinter had stopped his ascend at the sound of the door opening as well and turned to look back.

"Raphael?"

"Uh, hi, uncle Splinter, I uh, just thought I heard something." Raphael watched as the rat studied him for a moment.

"That was probably me, my boy," he finally spoke, sounding amused at this. "I will make sure not to disturb you again."

Raphael smirked.

"Now go back to bed, Raphael."

The boy nodded and quickly ducked back inside his room, hesitated, and poked his head back out again, "Night, uncle Splinter!"

"Good night, Raphael."

Closing the door he then leaned against it. Ok, so it hadn't been his brothers, but why had uncle Splinter gone over to their room? Had he maybe heard them talking as well and gone over to punish them? Raph smirked at the thought, but knew it wasn't very likely. Maybe give them a warning or something. There really was only one way to find out for sure though he thought, and ran back to his bed. Climbing onto it he crawled closer to the wall and kneeled in front of it. Quickly he knocked a series of secret codes to the next room. He waited and was about to give up on getting an answer when suddenly he heard a few soft knocks. It wasn't the answer to his question of what was going on however, but instead a question in return: "Is Don there?" Surprised Raph stared at the wall as if an explanation would appear on it. None did however and he knocked "no" back to them. He repeated his own question of what was going on but didn't receive a reply. He thought he could very vaguely hear voices though. What _was_ going on?

He was about to charge to the other bedroom and demand an answer when suddenly he heard the door to his open. Whipping his head around he expected to see Mikey come in, but instead he saw the unmistakable silhouette of his oldest brother slip inside, closing the door again behind him.

"Shimi? Whatcha doing here?"

"Donnie's missing," the boy replied in a whisper.

"Missing? How can he be missing?"

Raphael couldn't be sure, but it looked like his brother was fidgeting.

"We sorta argued and then he left lookin' for Leo, but Leo's back now and Donnie isn't."

Confused Raph tried to keep up with the flow of information. "Where'd Leo go?"

"Never mind that, so did you see Don or not?" came the annoyed reply.

"No, he wasn't here."

"…Where's Mikey?"

Raph looked over to where his brother's bed stood empty and shrugged in the darkness, "Dunno. Probably with mom or somethin' I guess." It still didn't make a whole lot of sense to Raphael however and he frowned at his older brother, "But why are you so worried about Donnie?"

For a moment he thought his brother was about to leave again but Mashimi grabbed his arm instead and pulled him along towards the hallway.

"Hey! Whatcha doin'?!"

"Quiet! We need to find Don so I can…ehm, so he goes back to bed."

"Ok…" Raphael replied a bit hesitantly but didn't try to fight him anymore.

"Leo said he's not upstairs an' if he's not with you, then he's gotta be downstairs somewhere," Mashimi continued in a quick whisper as the boys quietly headed in said direction. "You check behind the couches and stuff, I'll go look in the kitchen."

Raphael stopped, still frowning and watched his brother hurry away. That really didn't make a whole lot of sense he thought, then shrugged and did as he'd been told and headed towards the living room. Passing by the little hallway that led to the dojo however he saw a faint bit of light shine from underneath the door.

"Shimi! Here!" he hissed to his brother, then without waiting to see if he'd been heard or not he walked over to the big twin wooden doors that led to their dojo.

* * *

Leo sat up in bed, holding his knees as he softly rocked back and forth with a frown on his face. He was feeling very sleepy, but he didn't want to fall asleep before his brothers returned. He didn't really understand where Don had gone to, nor why he'd left in the first place. Mashimi hadn't been very specific before dashing off to get Raphael and search for him. Frowning deeper Leo looked down. He felt stupid for not being able to help Mashimi, and slightly jealous his older brother had gone to Raph for help instead. Still, Leo had promised uncle Splinter he wouldn't get out of bed anymore tonight and he wasn't about to break his promise.

It still bothered him though. Don was wandering around, Mashimi had lied to uncle Splinter about Don being in the bathroom, and now Raph was going on a secret mission with his older brother. It should have been Leo.

He glanced at the door, trying to will his brothers to come back and explain things already.

* * *

Smiling up gratefully Donatello wiped a final tear from his face while accepting his father's hand to get back up.

"Do not worry, my son, but do try to mind where you put your belongings in the future."

"Yes, father. I just hope Leo's alright."

"I'm sure he is, I heard him speak to Splinter earlier, I am sure he will help your brother should he require it."

Nodding Donatello followed his father to the door.

"Now let us go to bed as well," his father said and opened the door, revealing Raphael reaching out with his hand, caught by surprise as he'd been about to open the doors himself.

"Raphael! What are you doing out of bed, my son?"

Surprised Donatello watched his brother blink against the light streaming out of the dojo, wondering the same thing. Before Raph had a chance to answer however Mashimi appeared behind him, looking worried.

"Mashimi?" Yoshi said, "What are you boys doing here? Did something happen?"

Donatello saw Raph look over his shoulder at their older brother, who to Don's surprise was looking straight at him with what he thought was worry. Why was Mashimi worried? Had something happened to Leo after all? Alarmed Don felt his heartbeat speed up.

Mashimi looked up at their father then, "Father, Donnie didn't do anything wrong, I promise."

"What?" Donatello and Yoshi glanced at each other after having spoken at the same time.

"Donnie, I'm sorry I said all those things, I shouldn't have," Mashimi continued and walked over to Don, "You shouldn't disappear like that!"

"Disappear?" Donatello repeated stupidly, not quite understanding what his brother was talking about.

"Donatello was here, Mashimi, we were talking about what happened," his father spoke up, a small knowing smile appearing his face as he looked from one boy to the other.

Mashimi didn't seem relieved however as he looked up at his father, "I saw he didn't put his books away before going to bed, father, I should have said something then but I didn't, 'cause I wanted Donnie to get into trouble for it," he continued, looking at Don again, his eyes starting to look teary. "I'm really sorry, Donnie, it was really my fault, I should have said something and then Leo wouldn't have hurt his foot. It wasn't your fault!"

Surprise made Donatello incapable of doing anything but stare back at his brother. Mashimi had made it sound like Don had hurt Leo on purpose and now he was saying it was his fault instead? He looked over at Raph who was looking at Mashimi with an odd look on his face.

"I'm glad you decided to tell your brother this, Mashimi, he felt very bad about what happened," Yoshi said softly, putting a hand on Donatello shoulder that made him look up at his father, "But he still should remember on his own to put away his belongings."

Donnie nodded up at Yoshi with a small smile. They'd already gone through this.

"But…" Mashimi started, sounding upset but was interrupted as Yoshi held up a hand to quiet him.

"Yet as the older brother it is your duty to help your younger brothers when you see they need it."

Mashimi stared up at their father for a moment before sighing and nodding, "Yes, father."

"We will continue this in the morning, my sons, but you must now return to your beds, it is too late for you to still be wandering around like this."

All three of them nodded and quietly followed their father out of the dojo and back upstairs. They reached Raph and Mikey's bedroom first, and Raph went inside, casting a last somewhat annoyed glance at his other two brothers before wishing them all a good night.

Yoshi then led them to their own bedroom where Leo was waiting rather impatiently for them. Don smiled at their father as he wished them a good night and turned off the light. Silence followed as Yoshi closed the door behind him but was predictably broken after a short while.

"Where were you, Donnie?" Leo asked in a whisper.

"He was in the dojo with dad," Mashimi replied before Don could.

"Shimi said you hurt your foot, Leo, I'm sorry," Don whispered.

"It's ok, Donnie, uncle Splinter said it's not bad, I just stubbed my toe really hard."

"Mashimi?" Don whispered after a pause.

"What?"

"Thanks."

Silence followed and wasn't broken this time.

* * *

Mikey yawned as his father gently laid him back in his own bed, "Night, dad."

"Good night, Michelangelo," came the whispered reply.

Mikey smiled as he snuggled deeper into the blankets then turned so he was facing the other side of the room, the mattress easily shifting beneath him. He sleepily tried to judge if his brother was awake or not. It was still very dark outside but he had no idea what time it was. He'd been sleeping by his mother's side when he'd woken up as his father carried him back downstairs.

"Raph?"

"Hmm?"

Apparently his brother was awake Mikey thought with a grin and lifted his head a little, "Did ya miss me?"

"Yeah right," came the muffled reply but Mikey frowned. Something seemed off in his brother's voice.

"What happened?"

For a few moments Mikey thought his brother was going to ignore him, but then he spoke, "I have _no_ idea. They never tell us anything."

Puzzled Mikey waited for an explanation, but one never came and he finally fell asleep wondering what his brother was talking about.


	11. Masks of Pride

Masks of Pride

Donatello managed to duck just in time, and the plastic sword harmlessly sliced the air where his head had been.

"Careful, Raph! Just 'cause it's plastic doesn't mean you can just hit me with it!"

"I didn' hit ya, did I?"

"Only 'cause I ducked."

Donatello sighed and raised his own toy sword once more, facing Raphael who did the same thing, an intense look in his eyes as he stared at his brother. It made Donatello feel a bit nervous, Raph looking serious and calculating couldn't mean a good thing. His brother must have seen his hesitation because he rolled his eyes, "Come on, Donnie! You promised me you'd help me practice!"

Donatello took a deep breath and charged in, swinging his toy sword to aim for Raph's arm. Neither of the two seven-year-olds was wearing any clothes. After they'd ruined a good number of shirts during ninjitsu training Tang Shen had refused to keep on mending them. It had been a ploy to get them to be more careful, but instead the boys had solved the problem by simply taking off their shirts during practice, the only garment they ever wore as they disliked the way pants fit them because of their shells. Only on the rare occasions their parents took them outside were they fully clothed.

Yoshi had thought it was a clever solution of them and even laughed when Tang Shen accused him of picking their side. He had however protested when Mashimi insisted he no longer wear his clothes during practice either, pointing out that the boy did not have any natural armor to protect his body. After some deep thinking on his part Mashimi had compromised by only taking off his shirt during practice, which he argued was the exact same thing his brothers did after all.

Though this toy sword duel wasn't formal practice, neither turtle boy wished to be scolded if they somehow did manage to get a tear in their shirts. Raph clumsily swung his arm out to avoid getting hit by Donatello's sword, thus swinging his weapon out of harm's way at the same time. Donatello quickly tried to take advantage of it by swinging his plastic sword back in, aiming for Raph's chest this time. The plastic sword made a dull sound when it hit his brother's carapace and was instantly followed by Raphael's annoyed grunt.

"I thought you said no hitting!"

"I meant on the head! And you shouldn't swing your sword away like that, Raph, you gotta block me!"

It had been two years since Raphael started his ninjitsu training, and for the past month Yoshi had started to include weapon training during practice. They all used wooden practice swords, though with varying degrees of success, Raphael and Donatello being the two who were worst at it. Don had tried to point out they had only just started to learn how to use them but Raph didn't listen. He argued that if Leonardo and Mashimi were already showing some promise of being able to wield the weapon without dropping it at every other turn then so should he. Even Mikey was managing to maneuver the weapon more or less properly!

So he had asked the only one who couldn't make fun of him for doing so to get in some extra practice, because Don was just as bad at it, or worse.

"I know I gotta block, Donnie, but you moved your sword funny!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Don't yell! They'll hear you!" Don quickly said.

"You're yelling as well!"

"Am not!"

"You were!"

Suddenly they heard somebody rushing up the stairs and coming their way. Sharing a startled look the brothers quickly shoved the swords beneath Raph's bed and dove for their t-shirts which they had thrown on top of Mikey's bed. They managed to put them on just in time before the door flew open and Mikey came rushing through.

"Why are you guys yelling?!" he yelled at them excitedly, obviously hoping for a game or something.

"We weren't yelling!" Raph answered, barely holding back his annoyance, then realized he was yelling and added more calmly, "Not anymore. We were just…"

As he didn't come up with a reason quick enough Don rolled his eyes, "…disagreeing on something." He had promised Raph to keep their sword practicing a secret. He'd seemed really serious about it for some reason and didn't want anyone to know they were teaching themselves in secret. Those were the words he had used. Don's reply only seemed to spark Mikey's curiosity however.

"Oh? About what?"

"Whether to tie you up for the monsters under the bed to come an' get ya, or just wait for em to chase ya down themselves," Raph replied in a growl.

Mikey hesitated for a moment, "Shimi said there are no monsters under the bed!"

"He lied," Raph retorted instantly, folding his arms across his chest.

"Guys, quit it!" Don intervened, then turned to Mikey, "We were just talking, Mikey, about practice this morning, and we disagreed on some stuff. That's all."

"Oooh, ok."

For a moment they thought he'd stop asking questions. They were wrong.

"What are ya gonna do now?"

Unable to shake Mikey they eventually agreed to play a game, at first to humor their younger brother, but soon were having too much fun themselves to care they couldn't get back to their toy sword practice. The brothers didn't even realize how long they'd been playing until their mother came up to inform them it was time for bed. This was met by a chorus of moans as it was almost every evening, but as usual they obediently did as they were told anyway.

After wishing each other good night the boys headed to their respective bedrooms. Right before going inside Raph looked over to the other bedroom to see the door close and sighed. Quietly he went inside and climbed into bed. He pulled the blankets over himself mumbling a "good night" to Mikey, hoping that would be enough to convince his brother he wasn't in the mood to talk. To his surprise, it did. He couldn't wonder very long about it however, as he fell asleep soon after.

The next morning all five boys showed up at the dojo door at 7 am sharp, as they did every morning. The door opened after a few moments to reveal not just Yoshi and Splinter as usual, but Tang Shen stood smiling behind them as well. Surprised the boys started to ask questions about her being there until Mashimi raised his hand in a fist at shoulder level in a quick and commanding movement and the other four boys fell silent. Remembering protocol before training the boys lined up and bowed. Yoshi and Splinter bowed back then stepped back to allow them to enter the dojo, which was still off limits to the children except during morning practice time.

"Mom! Why are you here?" Raph asked once Splinter closed the door to the dojo behind them.

"Are you gonna learn ninjitsu with us as well?" Mikey asked excitedly.

Tang Shen chuckled at this and shook her head, "No, Michelangelo, that is not why I am here."

"Prepare for practice," Splinter then announced, trying to look serious as he did every morning, but there was a twinkle in his eyes that made the boys curious. Quickly they took off their shirts and kneeled in a row to the side of the dojo as they always did to receive instructions. Their eyes traveled to their mother however instead of their two sensei clad in blue.

She walked over and kneeled in front of the five children, smiling secretly. After looking over each of them she took a deep breath, then began to talk, "My sons, while I cannot help worrying about you, I wish you to know how proud I am of you and everything you learn every day here with your father and uncle, and in class with me and the Utroms as well of course."

Each boy responded differently at this, Mashimi and Raph smiled proudly, Leo frowned, Mikey giggled, and Donatello simply waited for her to continue as she obviously wasn't done yet.

"I know how proud you are of your colors," she continued, looking over where they had folded their shirts, more neatly than usual with their mother present, then looked back and made eye contact with each turtle child once more, "Even though you did not choose them yourself, you continue to wear them."

"We know you and master Splinter chose em, mom," Mikey piped up, dropping the 'uncle' as they always did when their roles switched to teacher and student inside the dojo. "And we like 'em!" A few murmurs of agreement went up, without thinking about it they had simply taken the color ribbons given to each of them as babies as a personal symbol.

"To show you how much this gesture warms my heart, and how proud I am of your progress, I have made these for you." With that Tang Shen reached behind her, and when her hand came back into view she was holding several strips of cloth in her hand. Both Yoshi and Splinter -who had remained standing by the door - moved over now to stand on either side of the kneeling woman.

"What's that?" Donatello asked curiously.

"Masks," Yoshi replied with a proud smile, "For you to wear and honor the path of a ninja."

"Ninja masks!" Mikey cheered enthusiastically, bouncing up and down excitedly,\ though not getting up until he would be told he was allowed to.

"Mashimi, please come here," Tang Shen then said, raising her voice momentarily to head off any other comments.

Surprised the boy got to his feet then moved to stand in front of his mother, looking at the strips of cloth curiously. Unlike his turtle brothers he didn't really have a specific color he wore more than any other but his eyes had identified an extra color among the four familiar ones. His mother plucked it from among the others and handed it to Yoshi.

"My son, you are the eldest and therefore responsible for your little brothers. You have helped and supported them while improving yourself as well. You guide them when we can not, stand as one with them, and take pride in this brotherhood, unusual though it is. I am proud of you, my son," Yoshi spoke warmly as he reached out and tied the reddish brown mask across Mashimi's eyes, leaving two small tails at the knot poking out, then bowed to the boy.

Smiling foolishly the boy bowed back, "Thank you, master Yoshi, and you, mother."

He turned to kneel by his brothers again, his grin remaining wide and happy as he raised a hand to delicately touch the cloth wound around his head.

"Leonardo, please come," Tang Shen then called, giving Yoshi the blue strip of cloth.

His face serious the turtle got up and walked up to his mother, giving her a bow when he stood in front of her, then shifted to face Yoshi.

"Leonardo, I am proud to call you my son," he started in a clear voice, a hint of a smile on his face as he reached forwards and tied the blue mask on, also leaving two small tails of cloth poking out at the knot, "While you work hard and diligently, always aiming to improve yourself, you are still willing to help your brothers better themselves as well and achieve their full potential. You always consider your decisions wisely, and your actions honorably. The others should be proud to have you as brother, as I am to have you as a son." Then he bowed.

Though still looking serious his eyes were now sparkling. Leonardo bowed back precisely, "Thank you, master Yoshi. Thank you for the mask, Mother." As he turned to walk back to his brothers Leonardo finally couldn't help but let a smile blossom on his face, too happy to even notice not everybody looked as pleased at his praise.

"Donatello, come over here, please," Tang Shen said in her soft voice that sounded a bit thick now after just the two speeches.

The little turtle scrambled up at the sound of his name and quickly walked to stand before his mother, then blushed and looked up shyly at Yoshi.

"Donatello," the man started, smiling down warmly at the young turtle, "A man could not ask for a son more devoted to learning and improving his mind than you. Yet you also practice ninjitsu and improve your skills as a ninja even though you would prefer to study."

Startled the young turtle started to protest, but halted when Yoshi held up a hand to silence him, "Do not worry, my son. I am proud of your willingness to do something you would not have chosen yourself, to do it for your family instead. I also wish you to know I would be proud of you whether you became a true ninja or not."

Donatello blushed a bit at this but then smiled, "I want to be a ninja, father," he replied, forgetting protocol for a moment, "I want to be just like you and be a part of this team to help protect everybody." Donatello seemed eager to convince Yoshi he was telling the truth.

"I am honored, my son," Yoshi replied and after a moment where man and boy stared at each other in silence and tied the purple mask on. He bowed. Donatello quickly returned it before walking back all flustered, and kneeled besides his brothers.

"Raphael, please come to us," Tang Shen spoke up again, her voice getting thick with emotion now and handed the red cloth to her husband.

Raphael got up and while not reluctantly, he did approach slowly, his body and face tense. He made a quick bow.

"Raphael, you are so convinced you are second best to everybody else that you seem to think we believe this as well," Yoshi said a bit sadly. Raphael pressed his lips closer together and swallowed as he looked Yoshi in the eye.

"But this is not true. Your passion and energy are boundless and spent to improve the flaws you see in yourself. You have much compassion though you try to hide it with roughness. Your temper makes you lash out, but I know how hard you work to correct this, my son, to avoid hurting others. I simply could not be prouder of you, Raphael."

Looking stunned Raphael didn't move or speak while Yoshi tied the red mask around his head. As the man straightened up again to bow Raph just stared up at him for a moment with wide eyes. Then suddenly he smiled hesitantly and returned the bow, "Thank you, master Yoshi," he said softly. He turned to Tang Shen and whispered a thank you to her as well and quickly walked back to take his place among his brothers. He kneeled, then lifted his chin as if to dare anyone to look at him.

"My Michelangelo, please come to us, my dear," Tang Shen called the last brother, who happily jumped to his feet and ran forwards. For a moment it looked like he was going to throw himself at her in a hug, but he managed to restrain himself at the last moment and stood still, then bowed. His grin remained on his face however.

"Michelangelo, do not ever think you are less because you are the youngest, my son," Yoshi spoke, "I know your brothers do not always treat you as they should." At this Yoshi looked at the four still kneeling brothers who squirmed a bit under his gaze, "But do not forget yourself that you are all equals, that you are all brothers, and that you are all a family together, now and forever no matter what is said and done." Yoshi paused here for a moment, letting each boy think this over, then continued, "I have seen your potential, Michelangelo, and I know you have it in you to become a great ninja, possibly more skilled than anyone in this room, including myself."

Michelangelo seemed so shocked at this his smile disappeared and was left staring up at Yoshi as if seeing him grow a second head.

"But whatever happens," Yoshi continued as if he didn't see this, "Do not ever lose the warmth you carry in your heart, my son, for it is not only your greatest strength in life, but for those around you as well. I am proud of you, Michelangelo." After receiving his mask Mikey mumbled something that could be interpreted as a "thank you", then started to walk back before suddenly turning back again and bowed once to Yoshi, Tang Shen and Splinter each. Quickly he sprinted back to his brothers then, and kneeled at his place at the end of the row, still looking completely shocked.

Tang Shen stood up then, smoothing the skirt of her dress as she did so, and reached up to her eyes for a moment. Her smile however was radiant.

"My sons, I hope you will always remember that we love you, and are proud of your accomplishments no matter how big or small. Never forget that you have a family that supports you."

She then smiled and rushed over to fondly kiss each boy on the forehead, producing both protests and giggling but she didn't care. Turning to Splinter and Yoshi she nodded her head to them, then wished them all good luck with their training and left the dojo to prepare the boys' lessons for later. The last thing she heard were the instructions issued by Splinter and the sounds of sudden motion as she softly closed the door behind her.

* * *

**A/N: Just a short little chapter ^_^ I know it's all a bit mushy and just repetitions of what we've heard a million times said about them before, but I just felt this little ceremony was too important in their young lives to skip. That, and after this things are going to get less cheerful fast anyway, so might as well squeeze in one more happy memory here ^_~**


	12. The Outside

The Outside

Trying to look natural the boys eagerly looked around, at every bush, building, car and person they came across. They rarely were allowed to go outside, and of those few times even fewer were during the daytime. But with the approach of each winter they knew their parents would be allowing them to go into the city with them and walk around among everybody else. And so each year they eagerly awaited the time the weather would turn so cold people would bundle themselves up to go outside. That's when the turtles would be dressed up with so much winter clothing that it was impossible to see they had green skin and a shell, let alone weren't human.

The turtles were eight years old now and that happy time of the year had finally come once again. Down the streets of New York they walked, gaping up at the many sights and wonders of the city they had not properly seen for almost a year now. Yoshi -now dressed in ordinary winter clothing, including a pink poofball hat Mikey had insisted he wear- walked at the front of their little procession with Raphael and Leonardo, holding their mittens tightly in his own hand. Tang Shen walked behind him, holding onto the hands of Donatello and Michelangelo, and in between the two parents pranced Mashimi, obviously enjoying the fact that he was the only one of the brothers allowed to walk by himself. According to him this was because he was the oldest boy, but the truth was that Yoshi and Tang Shen simply only had four hands total, and as Mashimi was the only boy who for obvious reasons could leave the house more often all year long he wouldn't be so easily distracted by the wonders of the outside world.

This was the first day of this winter the turtle boys were allowed to go outside with their parents, and at first they had been disappointed Splinter refused to come along this time, claiming he would like some peace and quiet by himself, but had quickly gotten over it once they left the front door and found the snow waiting to be used for games. Yoshi had tried to call them to order but after seeing and hearing the boys enjoy their new freedom, simply scooped up some snow into a small snowball and threw it at Mikey. Within moments the man had found himself targeted from 5 different angles, and had had to use every bit of skill he possessed not to be buried in the incoming storm of snowballs.

After watching this game for a while Tang Shen had managed to remind her husband they had to get going, and with great difficulty the boys calmed themselves down enough to start their walk. It would have been easier to use the family car as it was large enough to fit them all in, but their parents knew how much more they would enjoy this opportunity if they walked, and so they trekked through the snowy streets of New York to their destination: one of the Utrom hideouts, disguised as a simple office of business.

The Utroms had several smaller operations throughout the city, most carrying a different name, though officially on paper all were affiliated with TCRI in some way. But this particular place they were heading to happened to be the Leatherhead 's home. Their alligator friend couldn't visit them as often anymore. Ever since he had hit puberty the boy had grown larger and larger, his features more and more pronouncing his true reptilian heritage. It simply became too hard to hide the fact he had a large muzzle filled with sharp teeth and a long scaly tail to have the boy travel to the Hamato home anymore to visit his friends except during the quietest and darkest hours in the night.

Every now and then one of the Utrom scientists would drive the boy when it was already dark and he would stay with them for a few days. But as much as he enjoyed being with his young friends and loved the atmosphere their family held, his life was with the Utroms. To him they were his family, the ones who raised and taught him. And so the Hamato boys tried to come to him as often as possible instead.

After their long trek through the snow the boys and their parents finally reached their destination. They entered a small building that sported a sign declaring it to be a company dedicated to nanotechnology. Donatello had once entrusted his brothers with the information that this was actually true, though when he had tried to answer their request for a better explanation of what this actually was, he had left them more confused than enlightened.

The Utroms lived beneath the building where the actual base was located, everything at ground level and above was mostly just a cover for the human interactions they had with investors and customers. But below grounds the Utrom community thrived, just like it did in the few other locations across town. It wasn't one of the biggest ones, but it was the one the turtles and Mashimi were the most familiar with. It was also where they had received many lessons from their Utrom teachers during winter time. Throughout the rest of the year the home schooled boys would every now and then receive a guest tutor, but they preferred coming here because they were free to go anywhere they wished with their friend after their classes were over. It was the closest they came to roaming outside of their home. All they had to do to be given free access to most of the Utrom base was go through a quarantine procedure that all but Raphael and Mashimi didn't mind. Raphael because he didn't appreciate being sprayed down as it reminded him of bath time, and Mashimi because the hard pressure of the liquid felt uncomfortable on his sensitive human skin. But both endured it for the promised freedom of just them kids roaming around.

Though older and much taller than the rest of them now, Leatherhead was still capable, and more than willing to play and have fun with his friends. After their parents left the youngsters to play with their friend, the teenager alligator led the younger boys through the underground base, showing them new areas and old hiding places.

"Let's go further down," Donatello suggested after they dried themselves from the mandatory purge, eager to look around.

"We've never been all the way to the bottom, have we, Leatherhead?" Mashimi asked, frowning.

"No, I do not believe you have, my friends. It isn't very interesting though, it is mostly a storage area anyway, and less frequented by the Utroms," Leatherhead replied after a moment of thought.

"That's even better!" Mikey said, "No adults!"

"They'll come looking for us eventually though, Mikey," Mashimi pointed out, and poked the younger turtle with a grin.

"Hey!" Mikey exclaimed, then poked the older boy back on the arm and almost instantly the two started to wrestle, trying to either tickle or tackle the other to the ground. It ended with Mashimi managing to sling Michelangelo over a shoulder, barely able to stay on his feet as he did so, and wobbled around as he breathed heavily, "So let's get moving before they find us already!" he panted with a grin on his face. He had to quickly put the younger turtle down then because even though Mikey was smaller, his natural armor made him very heavy. Mikey giggled as he stumbled to get his balance back, then stuck out his tongue before running after Leatherhead.

"Do you go down there often, Leatherhead?" Leo asked their large friend as he walked beside him. Leatherhead wore a white lab coat, one of the few garments large and comfortable enough for him to wear without hindering his movements somehow. The turtles only wore their masks now as the Utrom base was warm enough for them to go without further protection. They almost always wore their masks now and though they still wore their t-shirts at home, they sometimes didn't bother with them anymore either. Mashimi also wore his mask as often as possible, only taking it off when he left the house and then only because his parents made him do so to avoid drawing any unwanted attention to himself.

"Yes, Leonardo, I admit that sometimes I do go there, to be by myself," the alligator replied a bit embarrassed.

"Why?" Donatello asked curiously.

Leatherhead seemed to need to think about this answer and when he did reply, he seemed a bit down, "No specific reason. Sometimes I just wish to be by myself and think about things. Like, who I am, and where I came from."

"Where _did_ you come from, Leatherhead?" Mikey asked, now just as curious.

"I do not know."

The boys remained silent for a while, continuing their walk through the hallways that led in all directions, including up and down through the large organic tubes that could suck a person up, and then neatly deposit them on another level. It was to one of these tubes that Leatherhead led them in silence. Politely he indicated they go first. Already familiar with these tubes from their past visits to Utrom bases the children simply lined up. Mashimi was the first to walk into the mouth of the tube and seemed to fall down out of view. Donatello followed close behind, Raphael and Michelangelo jumping in after him and Leonardo bringing up the rear before Leatherhead followed last.

They ended up in a hallway that looked like any of the others, except they knew they couldn't go any lower than this. As Leatherhead had mentioned, they didn't encounter any Utroms as they followed him once more.

"Why doesn't anyone come here?" Mikey asked as he looked around, seemingly a bit nervous now that they truly did seem to be completely alone. Not even the distant sounds and voices of the working Utroms could be heard now.

"I suppose they have no reason to," Leatherhead said with a shrug, then smiled as he watched Mikey. "Do not worry, Michelangelo, it is most likely this place remains abandoned because it is simply boring."

This seemed to reassure the turtle a bit.

"I think it's a great place for tag!" Raphael suddenly exclaimed with a grin as they reached a large open area filled with what appeared to be sealed containers. He quickly ran ahead, shouting "Not it!"

Michelangelo didn't hesitate for even a moment to follow his example and took off running, his smile and laughter back once more.

"Are we allowed to come here?" Leonardo asked a bit worried then, watching his brothers run off.

"Leatherhead wouldn't bring us here if we weren't, Leo," Mashimi said, his voice clearly indicating he thought Leonardo was being too serious. With a shout and a grin the human boy took off as well.

Leo frowned at this, but after glancing up at Leatherhead and getting a confident nod back from the large alligator, he shrugged and called, "Not it either!" before following the other boys.

"Now what?" Leatherhead asked a bit hesitantly as he and Donatello were left behind. The purple masked turtle was grinning up widely at his friend, seeming to have expected this or a similar question from him, "Now you'll have to catch us," he exclaimed, then ran away laughing, "Not it!"

Leatherhead blinked as he watched the last of the younger boys take off and run between the large towering containers. "Yes, I should have seen that coming," he commented to himself. He did not get to play like this very often when he was younger as he knew no other children other than the turtles and Mashimi. But not being used to being around other children also meant he felt no inhibitions about playing a childish game at an age when human kids would have felt themselves too old to do so. Quickly he ran after the group, slowly building up speed and a growing a smile on his face.

The large teenager tried to be as careful as possible, his growing body making him a bit clumsy lately and he didn't want to accidentally hurt one of his friends. Soon he became a bit bolder however as he grew confident his agile little ninja friends would not let themselves get accidentally stepped on. Laughing out loud Leatherhead managed to snag Donatello clean off his feet when the smaller child tried to run past him.

"Gotcha!" he yelled triumphantly, raising the turtle squealing with laughter up high. The others started to laugh at this display as well and Leatherhead started to feel his blood rush faster. Running around, chasing others for fun wasn't something he did very often. He_ liked_ this! It wasn't until he felt tugging on his lab coat that Leatherhead realized he was still holding Donatello high above his head, his own gaze distant and slightly hazy, and suddenly he regretted this immensely. But what really scared him was the odd sound he could not identify until he realized it was coming from his own throat. He was roaring instead of laughing, and he sounded like an animal!

Startled Leatherhead quickly lowered the turtle back to the ground before taking a few quick steps backwards. Mashimi had been the one to tug on his coat, the other turtles having been frozen on the spot at the intimidating sight and sounds of their usually timid friend suddenly looking so ferocious. The human boy helped Donatello get back on his feet after tipping over at being put back on the floor so roughly.

"Leatherhead?" Mikey asked hesitantly, raising a hand towards him.

"You ok?" Raph asked worried.

"Please, do not come near me," Leatherhead panted, raising a hand as if to stop them.

"But what's wrong?" Leonardo asked, moving as if to take a step closer.

"No! I do not know what is happening to me…!"

"Leatherhead?" Donatello asked, taking a few small steps closer, though still keeping a hold on Mashimi's sleeve, "It's ok, you just startled us, that's all."

"No, Donatello, it is not ok. I felt something…primitive. Something I should not be feeling when in the presence of friends. I felt like…like a hunter."

For a tense moment nobody spoke as the children stared at the large alligator, seemingly for the first time ever noticing just how sharp his teeth actually were.

"You…wanted to…eat Donnie?" Mikey asked softly.

Leatherhead hesitated and looked at the purple masked turtle as if trying to figure out the answer to this question. Then he sighed and his shoulders sagged.

"I do not know what I wanted to do…I do not know what is happening to me lately, my friends. I seem to be changing…"

"Well, duh, you're getting bigger and bigger, Leatherhead!" Mikey pointed out.

"And then there's puberty…" Donatello offered hesitantly.

Leatherhead had started to rub his closed eyes and now lowered his hands to regard the five younger boys staring up at him. How could he have possibly felt good about capturing one of them as if they were prey?

"Maybe, I believe that could be possible," he finally said, though it was obvious he wasn't all that convinced. But before any of the other boys could say something else Leatherhead spoke up again, "How about we play hide and seek instead? I assure you that there are many hiding spaces down here, and there will be no Utroms to give you away by accident."

It wasn't a secret that Leatherhead enjoyed this game the most out of all the ones they played, so smiles blossomed on the young faces, hopeful that whatever had bothered their tall friend moments before was gone now. A few cheers went up and they all looked around eagerly at possible hiding spaces already.

Leatherhead was about to volunteer to come looking for them first but after a glance at the tall alligator Mashimi beat him to it, "You all hide first! I'll come looking for you and the first one I find will be a bad ninja!"

"But Leatherhead isn't a ninja," Mikey hesitantly reminded his older brother.

Mashimi however just laughed, "Don't worry, Mikey, Leatherhead knows this place better than we do, so he may just win this time!" At this last bit the human boy shot a teasing grin at the older one. It was a running joke that leatherhead was so big that they could always spot him right away. While this had only happened once, they would still tease him with it whenever they could. Leatherhead grinned back but didn't reply.

Walking to a large crate Mashimi put his forehead on his arm against the crate and closed his eyes. As he loudly started to count back from a hundred the other five boys took off giggling, starting the game. Leatherhead found himself a proper place to hide almost instantly and lowered himself into an open crate he knew was there. As he crouched in the dark he listened to the distant voice of Mashimi and let his mind wander back to what had just happened. It wasn't the first time he had been overcome of what he could only describe as primitive animal instincts. He didn't wish to share this with his friends however as he didn't want to scare them. On the other hand, it did make him feel like another barrier had risen between them all. Not only was he older and did he live somewhere else, he was also a different kind of mutant, a different kind of animal. He was a predator.

Sighing the teen squeezed his eyes shut and willed these thoughts to go away. He'd find a way to deal with it some other time, right now he was playing hide and seek with his best friends in the whole wide world. His _only_ friends in the whole wide world.

* * *

"…He just seemed so sad," Leonardo whispered from his bed. It was night, and they were all back home again, each supposedly sound asleep in their beds.

"Yeah, Shimi, didn't you see it?" Donatello added in a whisper just as quiet as Leo's.

The oldest of the brothers sighed a breath barely heard then his blankets rustled, indicating he had turned around to face them in the darkness.

"…Yeah, I saw it," he finally whispered after a long pause.

"What do you think is wrong with him, Shimi?" Leonardo asked hopefully.

"I dunno, he didn't want to tell us after all."

"Something is wrong with Leatherhead though," Donatello said in a firm whisper, wanting to hear them agree.

"Maybe he's lonely? He doesn't get to go out as much anymore after all and he doesn't have anyone to play with when we're not there," Leo offered.

"I don't think so, he's really too old to play anyway," Mashimi answered almost absently.

Don made a huffing noise, "No he's not! He plays with us, doesn't he?"

Mashimi made a noncommittal sound and didn't expand on it. Again his blankets rustled as he turned over to lie on his back, tucking his arms below his head.

"What if he's in trouble?" Leonardo finally suggested.

"What kind of trouble?" Donatello instantly asked, worry in his voice.

"I dunno…"

Again there was silence as the three boys thought about this. Leonardo was about to give up and just give in to sleep, when suddenly he picked up on something different. Blinking in the darkness he moved his head towards the wall next to him and frowned. Everything was completely silent but he was sure he had heard something. Were Raph and Mikey talking? Straining his hearing he still didn't hear anything. Sitting up in bed Leo took a deep breath and closed his eyes, trying to remember every bit of information their father and uncle Splinter had taught them about being aware of your surroundings with all of your senses. Did the room next door count as his surroundings though he wondered.

"Leo? What are you doing?" came the sudden whispered question from Mashimi, and Leonardo opened his eyes.

"I thought I heard something…"

"Where?" Mashimi was now sitting up in bed as well, and judging by the sounds coming from Donatello's direction he too was no longer lying down either.

Leonardo hesitated for a few moments. He still wasn't sure he had heard properly, or if there had even really been a noise in the first place, "I…I'm not sure. I thought I heard something coming from Raph and Mikey's room…"

Mashimi sighed and Leonardo could hear him push his blankets aside and get up from the bed. Soft footsteps could be heard moving towards the door and Leo moved his head along with it as he tried to see the expression on his brother's face.

"I'll go see what they're up to," Mashimi announced in a suffering big brother voice after softly opening the door, then disappeared into the hallway. A giggle escaped from Donatello's direction at these words and Leonardo couldn't help but stifle a laugh himself. He opened his mouth to make some kind of remark about their two younger brothers being in trouble now, but before he could say something Mashimi rushed back inside and closed the door hurriedly.

"Leo! Come over here!" he hissed at him as he moved to Donatello's bed, the one closest to the door.

Suddenly feeling his heartbeat speed up Leonardo scrambled to get out of bed and hurried over, making sure to be as quiet as possible about it.

"They're not there!" Mashimi told them in a hurried whisper.

"What?!" squeaked Donatello before getting shushed by both his brothers.

"Maybe they went to the bathroom," Leo offered, "Mikey sometimes get scared to go by hims…"

"No, Leo! I seriously mean that they are gone! And not just that, their window is open!"

This time a gasp escaped Donatello and Leonardo felt himself staring at his older brother, even though his face was hidden in shadows.

"You think…somebody took them?" Donatello asked with a frightened quiver in his voice. Leo felt like somebody had just slapped him in the face when that possibility came crashing down on him. He knew his father and uncle Splinter had enemies, they never actually named them but had vaguely hinted at them often enough for them to know they existed. Had one of those now found their home and taken their brothers?

"No, I don't think so…" Mashimi answered, and his voice made Leo frown at him.

"…Because I saw their pillows beneath their blankets to make it look like they're asleep…"

Blinking several times it took Leo a few moments to understand what this meant. Then he felt anger rise up in him. For just a few seconds he had thought something bad might have happened to his little brothers, actually feared for their lives, been very concerned, scared even. But they had actually left willingly? By themselves? Without letting anyone know about it? His face was an angry scowl now.

"Where did they go?" Donatello asked, his voice still concerned.

"Outside it seems," Mashimi whispered back, sounding a bit angry now himself as well.

A few moments of silence passed as each boy considered this, each with different effects. Mashimi and Leonardo shared an anger, though of a different nature. Donatello on the other hand felt his fear rising as he considered every possible thing that could go wrong with this scenario.

Leo was about to suggest they go tell the adults, then remembered their father and uncle were out patrolling. Their mother was here but what could she do other than call their father?

"What do we do?" he asked, irritation in his voice.

There was a moment of silence before Mashimi answered him, "We go after them and get them back before father and uncle Splinter get home."

"What?! No! That's not fair!" Leo shot out angrily, then winced as both brothers shushed him. They waited a minute to hear if their mother had heard, then continued talking.

"They should be punished for doing something this stupid, Shimi! You're not going to protect them, are you?" Leo demanded in a whisper.

"We're supposed to watch over them, Leo. If they get punished, so will we," his older brother answered in a reasonable voice. Leo had a few arguments against that but bit his lip. He didn't think it was fair to let them get away with something so dangerous, but if Mashimi thought it was the right thing to do… He turned his head to look at the shadows surrounding Donatello's form, "What do you think, Donnie?"

"I…I don't want them to get hurt," came the whispered reply.

"Come on then," came the decided voice of their older brother, and Mashimi started to quietly move about to get dressed.

Resigned Leo looked around to see what he should take with him and went for his blue mask, tying it on. They were allowed to train with actual katana nowadays, but only under the supervision of their sensei. Those weapons were in the dojo right now and there was no way they could get there without their mother noticing them as she was probably still downstairs. Those mother instincts seemed to work just as well as any ninja sense and were the perfect armory against ninja stealth. No weapons then, they would just have to hope their brothers weren't in any kind of trouble.

Donatello had climbed out of his bed by then and was now standing next to Leo with his own purple mask tied on, restlessly flexing his hands, "Shall we put our shirts on as well, Leo?" he whispered.

Leo frowned for a moment, then shook his head, "No, we move more silently without them."

"Ok, I'm done, let's go!" whispered Mashimi urgently, sounds of him fastening his pants as he hurried to the door to their bedroom. Quickly the two turtles followed him, taking care to walk lightly so their mother downstairs would not hear them. They watched their older brother softly open the door, poke his head outside to check the lighted hallway, and then quickly tiptoed outside when he gave them the silent hand signal that all was clear.

Blinking against the light the three boys just as quickly ducked into their two brothers' bedroom, closing the door behind them.

"Maybe we should have put pillows in our beds as well," Donatello whispered suddenly, a nervous edge to his voice.

"Too late now," Mashimi replied, "Come on."

Trying to make as little sound as possible the brothers climbed out of the still open window onto the fire escape, then just stood there as the cold winter wind really hit them. While none of the street lights shone directly onto them, there was enough distant illumination for them to see each other. The turtles looked at their older brother, though he was looking just as lost as they were at the moment. They really had no idea where Raphael and Michelangelo had gone, and the younger two in particular had very little experience moving through the outside world unsupervised.

"Where do we go, Mashimi?" Donatello asked, his voice making it clear he was expecting the elder to take the lead. His breath formed a small cloud in the cold air as he spoke. Maybe they should have put on some clothes after all…

"Ehm, let's go down, we can decide then which way to go," Mashimi whispered back, hesitantly leading his brothers down the fire escape and into the alley next to their house. As promised the Utroms had provided the Hamato family with a home where they could live in safety while still being in close proximity to the aliens. This had resulted in a home in one of the more run down areas of the city, where people left their neighbors alone. And as an added security their home had an alley on one side, a simple store that also functioned as a meeting place for the Utroms and their allies on another, and a storage building at the back where people only occasionally came to pick up and drop off stuff, but otherwise left it alone due to the high security it had. That security had of course been provided by the Utroms, as they owned that place as well.

It made for a safe environment for the family to live without fear of someone finding out not all their members were human. But right now, it made the three boys' mission to go unnoticed just that much harder. Mashimi knew this very well as he was often allowed to go next door and chat with the people that ran the store, Utrom and human alike. Very rarely were his brothers allowed to come alone, and then only in the winter, bundled up in many layers of clothing, and when it was getting dark. Often the store was already closed by the time it was dark enough however, so this almost never happened.

Having edged to the mouth of the alley Mashimi motioned for the other two to wait while he walked further into the street, looking left and right, trying to decide where to go. Don and Leo watched him from behind a garbage container, their bodies tense as they held their breath. Never had they been outside without their parents' or uncle's permission, ever.

"Did you see them?" Donatello asked hopefully when Mashimi returned to their hiding space.

"Of course not, Don, do you really think they'd be standing somewhere in the middle of the street?" Mashimi asked annoyed, making the purple masked turtle blush, but not back down.

"Then where are they? We need to hurry and find them, Shimi!" Donatello said with more urgency now.

"I don't know!" The frustration of admitting he didn't know what to do was apparent in their older brother's voice now.

"Then how are we supposed to know, we never go outside! You do!"

"That doesn't mean I know the entire city, Don! And even if I did, how would I know where Raph and Mikey went?!"

"Ok, well, where would they go?" Leo intervened, trying to think logically. Both his brothers stopped glaring at each other and turned to look at him.

"Well, is there a candy store nearby? Mikey would want to go there," Donatello suggested.

"No, there isn't. And even if there was, it would be closed by now," Mashimi said, his voice still holding some resentment.

"Ok, fine, then what do you suggest?" Donatello answered exasperated.

Mashimi had no answer and neither did Leo. The three boys stood still, thinking deeply, trying to figure out where their brothers had gone. And why.

"What…what if they went to Leatherhead?" Donatello finally asked.

Leonardo and Mashimi looked at him, then at each other.

"Do you, do you think they would go that far away?" Leo whispered, his eyes wide at the possibility. While it was only a half hour walk, to them it was a great distance, about as far as they had ever gone.

"It does make sense," Mashimi said reluctantly after a few moments, "I'm pretty sure they noticed Leatherhead wasn't himself as well."

"Yeah, Mikey kept trying to cheer him up with those silly jokes of his," Leo agreed seriously.

Again silence overtook them as they looked at each other.

"Ok, let's go then, we have to catch up to them before they get into trouble and get them home before mom notices we're all gone," Mashimi finally said in a decisive voice. Now that they had a goal again he easily slipped back into his role as the older brother and moved deeper into the alley.

"Where are you going, Shimi? We have to go this way!" Leo whispered urgently while pointing to the street the alley led to. His brother was walking towards the other end, a dead end at that. Sharing a confused glance Donatello and Leonardo then quickly rushed after their brother, curious now.

"I know that, Leo," Mashimi said when they caught up to him, "But it's not like you two can walk down the street, and neither would Raph and Mikey have done such a thing. They're not that stupid. And besides, it's way too cold outside to walk around like this."

"That's true," Don agreed, shivering a bit, "But how else would they get there?"

"Dad and uncle Splinter, and the other Utrom guardians, they go over the roofs," Mashimi started to explain, but was interrupted by Don again.

"We can't do that, Shimi, we can't jump that far!"

Mashimi sighed and rolled his eyes at Donatello, "I know that, let me finish, will ya? We can't go above the city, so instead, we'll go below it." And with that he crouched down next to a manhole, grinning up smugly at his brothers.

"The sewers?" Leonardo asked hesitantly.

"Yeah, it'll be perfect, nobody would see us!" Mashimi explained in a still hushed voice as he started to try to pry the manhole cover off.

"But…do you think Raph and Mikey went down there as well?" Donatello asked hesitantly, a hand fidgeting at his mouth.

"It's the only way for them really."

"But would they even think of it?" Donatello continued to question him, uncertainty in his voice.

"Well, why wouldn't they? I mean, we all heard the story of how mom and dad found you guys and uncle Splinter in the sewers a million times before, right? And you know how much Mikey loves to play out stories."

Leo nodded at this and saw that Donatello was doing the same, convinced now.

"Would you mind helping me?" Mashimi finally asked after having struggled to lift the heavy object by himself and failing. Quickly the two turtles crouched down and pried their fingers in the opening left open by Mashimi as he struggled with all his strength to lift the lid. Though stronger than their older brother it still took all three of them to slide the cover away, and revealing the darkness below.

"Let's go down," Mashimi whispered after they spent a couple of seconds staring down in awe, and proceeded to carefully climb down himself first, leading his brothers down into the unknown.

* * *

**A/N: Because of course it makes pefect sense to go outside in the middle of the night during winter time wearing little to no clothes on a grand rescue adventure...instead of just calling mom and have the professionals go look for your missing family members. Kid logic, gotta love it! :D (And yes, all the boys are training with katana, not just Leo.)**


	13. The Inside

The Inside

Quietly Mikey poked his head around the corner, looking into his bedroom. Spotting Donatello sitting at one of the two desks doing homework or something, he quickly slipped inside and shuffled over to his brother.

"Donnie?" he asked hesitantly when he stood at his side without getting much of a response. "…Are you still mad at me and Raph?"

The other turtle shrugged his shoulders but didn't look up from what he was working on. Mikey recognized it as their homework now. He should be doing his right now, but he just didn't feel like it. He was feeling too miserable, like he had been all week long.

"Please talk to me, Donnie…please?" he begged while gently plucking at the purple shirt his brother was wearing to hopefully get a response, any kind of response.

It worked.

Donatello put the pencil he was writing with down and sighed while turning his chair to face his brother, "What is it Mikey? What do you _want_?"

An instant smile appeared on Mikey's face, Don was finally talking to him! He flung himself at his brother, hugging him, too happy at no longer being ignored by at least one brother to care about Don's annoyed reply.

"Mikey! Get off!"

Giggling Mikey obeyed but was still grinning gratefully as he looked back at a glaring Donatello.

"What do you want, Mikey?!"

"I just want you to talk to me, Donnie! I don't want to share my room with a brother who won't even talk to me!"

"It's _our_ room now, Mikey," Donatello sighed, dangling his legs as they didn't reach the floor.

"Well, yeah, I know, but you know what I mean." When he didn't get a response his smile faded again. "_Are_ you still mad at me, Donnie?" The scowl he got in response made Mikey flinch.

"Well what do you expect, Mikey! First you and Raph scared the shell off of us by disappearing in the middle in the night, and when dad and uncle Splinter get home you two are lying in bed like nothing happened, and then they go looking for us, like _we _were the ones who sneaked away! And just to make matters even worse, it turns out you two were sitting on the roof of the house the whole time we were searching for you in those stinky sewers!" Don was breathing heavily now, "So yes, Mikey, I _am_ still mad at you! And Raph!"

Mikey looked back at his brother with a trembling lower lip, and he wasn't faking it this time. "I'm sorry, Donnie," he mumbled and he really was, as he had been repeating over and over again to all his brothers this past week, even Raph.

"Yeah right."

Mikey tried to fight back tears.

"I'm really, really, _really_ sorry, Donnie! We didn't mean for that to happen! Raph an' I…well, we had no idea you guys had left, we didn't know you were lookin' for us!" He was clutching Donatello's shirt again, trying to prevent him from turning away, trying to make his brother understand how bad he felt about the whole thing, that he hadn't done it on purpose. Donatello sadly shook his head and pushed Mikey's hands away to turn back to his homework.

Mikey whimpered as he watched Don through a teary haze pick up his pencil again and bend over the book in front of him. He was going to ignore him again! Desperate Mikey clutched the purple shirt again, "Donnie, I… You don't understand! Raph an' me, going outside to sit on the roof, that's our thing, you know? It was our secret. We…" Mikey didn't know how to end that sentence and sniffled, not bothering to stop the tears from leaking into his orange mask. "Donnie? Please don't ignore me again?"

Donatello sighed and leaned back into his chair without turning to look at his brother, "Why, Mikey? Why did you have to keep it secret from us?"

Encouraged his brother was willing to listen Mikey wiped his eyes quickly. Don slowly leaned his head back to sadly look at his brother. Wetting his lips to delay Mikey then grabbed the chair by the other desk in the room and pulled it over to sit next to Don. Hesitantly he looked his brother in the eye, hoping that telling him this wouldn't just make things worse. He didn't want his brothers to be mad at him and Raph anymore, especially the brother looking at him right now like he'd betrayed him. Mikey took a deep breath, held it, then sighed.

"Well…it's just that since Raph an' I moved here, and we no longer all shared a room, it was just like…well, like you three didn't need us anymore."

"What?" Don asked a bit confused, but he was listening more attentively now Mikey noted, "Why do you say that? We're brothers. We didn't ignore you or anything, did we?"

"Well, no, but…" Again Mikey hesitated as he tried to find a way to make Donatello understand how he and Raph had felt a gap, felt like they had been excluded from a private club. He took a deep breath, "You guys made us feel like we were no longer a part of the group anymore, you know? Like we're the baby brothers that don't understand anything. We're not stupid, Donnie, even if we're not as smart as you, or Shimi and Leo."

He bit his lip as he watched Donnie's shocked face, wondering if what he'd said had been the wrong thing to say. Putting his pencil down once more Donatello swiveled his chair around to fully face Mikey.

"Of course you're not stupid, Mikey! And neither is Raph! Why would you…we never thought you're stupid…"

Mikey smiled sadly, knowing Donnie thought he was telling the truth.

"Maybe you didn't think you were, but you sure treated us like it."

A few moments of awkward silence followed as neither brother knew what to say next.

"I'm sorry, Mikey," Don finally said, making Mikey look up again hopefully, "Maybe…I guess you're right. Maybe we did sort of leave you two out now and then. But, I swear we didn't mean to make you feel bad. It's just that, some of the stuff we talk about isn't the sort of thing you like to talk about."

Mikey nodded his head. He knew what Don was talking about. Leo and Shimi had a passion for training, discussing tactics, studying anything having to do with ninjitsu. And Donatello often joined in with them when they were researching some new topic that had taken their fancy, just like all three of them liked to discuss their lessons even when they didn't have to. All three of them simply liked to _learn_, and Mikey and Raph were a bit less enthusiastic about spending more time studying than absolutely necessary.

"I know, but still, it would have been nice if sometimes you did something we could all do together, instead of me always dragging you guys over."

Donatello bowed his head at this, and Mikey felt guilty for making his brother feel bad. He quickly smiled and jumped off of his chair and hugged Don again, "Don't feel bad, Donnie! I mean, I know you didn't do it on purpose!" To his relief his brother returned the hug this time.

Sitting back on the other chair again Mikey looked hopefully at his brother, "Are you still mad at me now, Donnie?"

Don returned a weak smile of his own, lowered his gaze and shook his head, "Nah, I guess not. I mean, it still isn't fair what happened," he looked up and Mikey felt a happy surge as he saw Don's smile was for real now, "But I guess maybe we haven't been fair to you either."

"And besides, it's not all bad, because now you an' me get to share a room!" Mikey said cheerfully, feeling very relieved now.

"Yeah," Don answered slowly and turned his head to look at the wall that separated the two bedrooms, "And besides, it wasn't your fault we got punished as well, you two were honest and confessed what really happened."

Mikey's smile fell again and he looked down at his feet, feeling guilty again.

"That's…kinda not completely true," he started, making Don look at him again with his mouth open in surprise. Mikey glanced up at him, swinging his legs nervously, "Dad punished the four of you pretty bad, but he barely said anything to me," he looked at Don, needing him to believe the next bit, "But it wasn't all Raph's fault, Donnie, even if that's what he told dad. I mean…" He hesitated, not wanting to get himself into trouble by revealing this to Donatello, but also feeling the need to defend Raph and explain what really happened.

"It wasn't even Raph's idea, you know. It was mine. To go out onto the roof?"

Judging by the stunned look that now covered his brother's face this came as a complete surprise. Mikey figured it would have.

"Your idea?? But, Mikey, why?! You know how dangerous it is, how stup…ehm, well, why would you want to do something that??"

Mikey hadn't missed how Donatello had quickly corrected himself, and gave him a smile for that. It had been stupid after all, Mikey had known this very well. But it had been worth it. Still, he couldn't stop the sad look from coming over his face as he looked down at his feet again.

"Well…it kinda wasn't just you guys. Raph…he didn't want to share a bedroom with me, you know. Not really. He was jealous of you guys. He said that he'd been stuck with the baby, while the rest of you got to have fun together." He couldn't keep the hurt out of his voice and when Don didn't say anything he continued, "So I wanted to prove to him that I wasn't a baby. I wanted us to do something fun, something that would make him like me more?"

"So you suggested to go outside?" Don said, nodding his head as he was starting to understand.

Mikey nodded as well, "Yeah. You know how Raph is always dying to go outside and explore. But it's too dangerous. Then one day, I dunno. The idea just popped into my head, you know? At first we just sat outside on the fire escape, and we always stayed in the shadows, but it was fun, Donnie! And it made Raph happy, he really liked being outside. He wasn't grumpy or anything when we sat outside, and we just talked. It was fun, so it just didn't seem like such a big deal anymore to climb all the way up to the roof and sit there instead," he finished with a wistful voice.

"I guess…I guess that makes sense. But it was still dangerous, Mikey. Not only could you have been seen, you could have fallen!"

"No way!" Mikey scoffed, finding it in him to grin a little again, "We're ninja, Don! We're agile like cats! Meow!"

Mikey felt himself relax as Donnie started to laugh.

"But yeah, it was pretty much my idea, yet dad didn't punish me at all."

Don snorted, still grinning, "You should be glad you're the baby, Mikey. It's no fun being grounded to your room for a whole week!"

"But at least you got stuck in a room with me, Donnie. Just think how the others are doing." Mikey had meant it as a joke but even so, neither brother smiled. They knew very well that the tension in the next room was very high indeed.

* * *

And it wasn't just the tension that was thick in this room; the silence that reigned was suffocating Raph. He was lying on his back on his bed, which was now located in the spot Don's bed used to stand by the door. He had his hands beneath his head as he stared at the ceiling. Well, more like glaring at the ceiling.

He could hear Leonardo over on his own bed, turning the pages of a book he was reading. And while he couldn't see Mashimi on the other side of the room without turning his head, he knew his oldest brother was sitting on top of his own bed, medidating. Or pretending to be meditating, Raph wasn't sure half the time. This was how they'd spent most of the week. In silence. Ignoring him. Only every now and then did his brothers speak up, and then only to each other, like he wasn't even there.

He'd been wishing to share a room with any of his brothers but Mikey from the moment they got split up, but now that that moment had finally come, he found absolutely no enjoyment in it. He was still being ignored by his older brothers, just more noticeably now.

He let out a soft growl of frustration and heard Leo shift his book. He was probably looking at him. Raph didn't care. It wasn't like he was going to say anything anyway. He heard Leo lift his book again. See.

"Did you get to the part where they cross the ocean yet, Leo?" Mashimi asked suddenly, and Raph squeezed his eyes shut. They were doing it again, pretending he wasn't there.

"Yeah, I just got there," Leo answered, but didn't expand on it.

Mashimi didn't respond and Raph opened his eyes again, balling his hands into fists beneath his head. Today was their last day of punishment, he just had to get through this day and it would be over. Or at least be able to leave the room and talk to Mikey and Donnie. True, Mikey had come over every day in an attempt to get them to talk to him, but like Leo and Shimi, he had ignored him. Leo and Shimi were still angry at finding out he and Mikey had been sitting on the roof the entire time and were now refusing to talk to either of them.

Raph on the other hand was just jealous of Mikey. Not only had he not been punished because mom and dad really did think that Raph had come up with it all by himself, but he'd also gotten Don as a roommate instead of these two jerks. Raph was sure he had already forgiven Mikey, and that they were having fun in their room while Don was still grounded. He'd heard them laughing earlier today.

Raph would have preferred any other combination their parents could have come up with, any, except this one. But even so, he was willing to talk to Mikey again after his punishment was over. Maybe they'd let him in on whatever fun they were having. Let Leo and Shimi bore each other by themselves, he wasn't sticking around any longer than he had to.

"It really isn't fair that Raph got grounded for just as long as us," Mashimi said conversationally all of a sudden, startling Raph for a moment by breaking the silence. Groaning he squeezed his eyes shut once more and balled his fists. Here they went again. At least now he knew his brother was definitely not meditating for real, just looking like he was.

"Since it was all his fault he should have been grounded for at least twice as long," Mashimi finished.

Something snapped in Raph and he couldn't stay quiet anymore. He had kept quiet for an entire week now, an entire week of swallowing this talk. He pushed himself up and twisted to glare Mashimi, "Yeah well, what kind of punishment would that be, huh? The real punishment is bein' stuck in the same room as you two!"

"Be quiet, Raph. You deserved to be punished for what you did," Leo told him calmly from over the edge of his book. Raph glared back at him, but before he could bite back a reply Mashimi got up from his own bed and marched over to him. Surprised Raph leaned back as the other loomed over him, one hand pointing accusingly at his chest.

"And more importantly, you deserved to be punished for getting us all into trouble! You dragged Mikey into danger with you, Raph! How could you do such a thing?! And you made Leo, Don an' me believe you might be in trouble! We actually cared enough to come after you! To help you! We broke all the rules for you! But what do we get in return? Punishment! For trying to help you! Thanks, Raph, really. I appreciate it."

Raph couldn't help but feel a twinge of guilt over this. While he had lied when he had said that it had all been his idea, it was true that his brothers had risked themselves thinking they were saving Mikey and him. That didn't stop him from glaring back at his older brother however.

"Who asked ya to come after us, huh? Should have taken a clue when we left without ya!"

"Yeah, we should have! We even tried to convince dad and uncle Splinter to help us find you when they found us! We didn't want to believe them when they said you were at home!"

Raph looked at Leo, the one who had spoken now, and wondered at the anger in his voice. Had they really been that worried? Well they shouldn't have been…!

"We don't need savin', Leo, we can take care of ourselves just fine!"

"Yeah, you sure proved that!" Mashimi responded angrily, "Keeping secrets, sneaking around, going outside without permission!"

"Oh, that's rich, Shimi, you talkin' about secrets!" Raph growled, and looked between Leo and him, seeing that they knew what he was talking about. None of them had forgotten about that embarrassing evening years ago when Splinter had told Raphael about the trouble they had gotten into themselves while trying to learn martial arts by themselves.

"I'm sick an' tired of you always blamin' me for stuff! You an' Leo always acting like you're so much better than me! And you even got Donnie acting the same way now!" Raph glared at Mashimi, then turned around and let himself fall back, his shell sinking into the self adjusting mattress, and glared at the ceiling once more, "I meant it. Mikey an' me did that just to get away from ya."

"Next time, leave a note to let us know not to come after you," Mashimi replied icily, and marched back to his own bed.

Raph waited a few minutes, but nobody spoke again. He sighed angrily. Back to silence they were. If only they had left him with Mikey, at least then being grounded wouldn't have been so painful. In fact, he wouldn't mind if Mikey walked into the room right now, he'd even talk to him!

The bedroom door opened and Raph nearly yelped, startled. Quickly he and Mashimi sat up, and Leo put his book down on his lap. Through the door came not Mikey, but their mother. Looking at her Raph wondered if time had gone by faster than he had thought and it was already dinner time. She held no tray with food however and behind her came Donatello and Michelangelo, the latter looking more cheerful then he had all week, until he saw the looks on his brothers' faces that is, then he quickly sobered up.

Tang Shen motioned for the two boys to enter then closed the door behind them. She moved to lead them over to Raph's bed, and he quickly made room for her to sit down. She patted the bed next to her while looking at Mikey, and he quickly sat down there, pulling up a knee and hugging it as he watched Mashimi and Leo slowly approach them.

"Please sit down, my sons," their mother softly said and indicated the carpet in front of Raph's bed. Don sat down cross legged across from Mikey, while Mashimi and Leonardo kneeled down opposite their mother and Raph, their backs stiff, wondering what was going on. Raph wondered as well and looked up at his mother next to him while shifting forwards to let his legs dangle off of the bed.

"My sons…" she started then faltered as she seemed to search for words. She took a calming breath then and continued, "My sons, we had hoped that limiting your presence and companionship to only yourself and your brothers for a week would help you see your wrongs, but I can tell that we were wrong."

"No, mother, you were right. We know what we did wrong," Leonardo spoke up, his voice dutiful, "Mikey and Raph were wrong for going outside by themselves without letting anyone know, and we made the exact same mistake."

"Except we did it to help them," Mashimi added in a mutter. Raphael glared at him.

Their mother half raised a hand to prevent any more interruptions, her face sad.

"No, Leonardo, that is not what I meant. Yes, you all did wrong by going outside like you did, endangering yourselves like that…" she sadly shook her head, and Raph balled his fists as he was once more overcome with guilt. "But that is not what I meant when I said we were wrong to confine you to your rooms."

They all looked at her curiously now. Would they receive even more punishment for something else then? Raph just hoped this couldn't be blamed on him because he was already feeling sorry he had protected Mikey the first time by taking full blame.

Tang Shen sighed again before continuing, "What troubled us the most, my sons, was not the fact that you endangered yourselves by going outside," she looked down at Raph then, "But that you did this without telling your brothers."

Raph closed his eyes and felt like groaning, it _was_ going to be blamed on him! Suddenly he felt his mother's hand on his shoulder and he opened his eyes again to look up at her, his gaze in between defiance and defeat. If she was going to blame this whole situation on him, then fine, but he wasn't going to apologize!

"Raphael, why didn't you include your brothers?"

Raph looked away from her so he wouldn't have to face anyone while defending himself once more, feeling his shoulders sag. He was getting tired of this. But just as he opened his mouth, he was surprised by Donatello speaking up.

"It was our fault, mom, not Raph's."

Raph turned to look at Don, his mouth still open, and his eyes wide and startled. Don was shaking his head then leaned forwards to look at Leonardo and Mashimi sitting next to him, "It was our fault, guys, not Raph's. And not Mikey's either," he added while looking back up at his new roommate. Raph noticed there was a sort of emphasis in his voice and narrowed his eyes at his brother in purple.

"What do you mean, Donatello?" their mother asked with a note of surprise in her voice, but her face looked hopeful now.

"Yeah, whaddaya talking about, Donnie?" Mashimi added, frowning, "We didn't do anything."

"Yeah, that's exactly what we did wrong, Shimi," Don said as he looked back at his older brother sitting next to him again, "We were sort of ignoring Raph and Mikey. The three of us almost never involve Raph or Mikey when we do things, not unless they come to us first. I think that's why they didn't feel like they had to tell us about…ehm, about going outside."

Raph stared hard at Donatello. He knew his genius brother hadn't come to this conclusion by himself, that Mikey must have told him something, maybe even everything, but even so he felt impressed that Don had spoken up. He then glanced at Shimi and Leo and saw them frown at Don. Leo was the first to look away and up at first Mikey, then Raph.

"I guess…maybe, yeah. We do sort of like to do other things than you."

"Not everything, Leo," Mikey offered, "There's lots of things we all like doing together. Like eating cake, and watching martial arts movies!"

Mashimi chuckled at this, but didn't deny it. He threw Raph a look that for the first time this week didn't look resentful.

"We're really sorry we didn't say anything to you guys, but it just seemed like you didn't want us around anymore anyway," Mikey continued, smiling hopefully with large pleading eyes at Shimi and Leo. Raph looked down, then slowly nodded, the movement making his brothers look at him instead. He didn't return their look however, half regretting already he had just agreed with Mikey.

"I guess I'm sorry too," Mashimi said with a sigh. Raph glanced up just in time to see Leonardo nod.

"Yeah, as brothers we shouldn't keep secrets from each other," Leo said and glanced at Raph. To his surprise he saw a corner of Leo's mouth twitch up at the word 'secrets'. Oh yeah, secrets could be embarrassing alright. Raph gave Leo a small smile back. Then he felt his mother's arm curling around his shell and looked up just in time to receive a kiss on his forehead.

"This is what I had been hoping for," she said, smiling before turning to Mikey on her other side, and bending down to give him a kiss as well while Raph was rubbing his forehead with an embarrassed grin. Mikey however quickly leaned away, surprising them all with the serious look on his face.

"There's one more thing, mom, you and dad really need to know this." He was looking at Raph now, "It wasn't Raph's idea to go outside, it was mine. And going up to the roof was my idea as well, it all was. It wasn't Raph's fault at all, he was just protecting me."

Raph winced when he felt his mother's gaze come back to him, and he looked up at her.

"Is that true, Raphael?"

He gave a half nod without taking his eyes away from her face.

"Why did you lie to us then?"

Raph shrugged and looked down at his feet, not really completely sure himself. He glanced up to look at Mikey. His younger brother was looking back at him with a proud smile. Raph sighed and looked up at his mother again, "I dunno. I guess I just didn't want Mikey to be blamed. It may have been his idea, but he only came up with it because he knew it's what I wanted," he told her gruffly. "That sort of makes it my fault as well. Because I let him. And because…" he glanced at Mikey before clearing his throat and looking away again, "Because I kinda liked havin' a secret with just Mikey I guess. He's fun to hang with." The last he said while glaring at his other three brothers.

Suddenly he was surprised by another kiss on top of his head. Startled he looked up at his mother and saw tears in her eyes. What did he do? But before he could recover Mikey jumped down from the bed and ran to him, flinging his arms around his neck in a hug, "I love you too, Raph!"

Raph heard someone chuckle but Mikey blocked his view so he couldn't see who it was. Even so, he couldn't bring himself to push his brother away so he had no choice but to return the hug.

"I'm glad you boys told me all this," their mother finally spoke up and Mikey let go of Raph to smile up at her. "This is what your father and I had hoped you boys would accomplish on your own. We we're just wrong to separate you while doing so."

She got up and his brothers followed her example. Tang Shen then kneeled down and gathered them all to her chest for one big hug. This resulted in giggles all around, but none of them protested. It was good to have the tension finally gone again. Raph looked at Mashimi and Leo, he knew that while they had sort of forgiven him this time, it still wouldn't be easy to get along without a fight or two now and then.

"Now then, your punishment is over," their mother announced as she straightened up again and smiled at their cheers, "But Michelangelo, you and I need to talk. It was not nice to let your brother take the blame for something you did, even if it was very noble of him to do so."

Raph watched the smile disappear from Mikey's face, but he knew their mother wouldn't be too hard on him anyway, their parents never were. Even so, he shot Mikey an encouraging smile as his brother was led from the room by Tang Shen.

This left him with the other three and he realized they were all looking at him. Raph had no idea what to say, and he didn't want to screw this up so quickly again by saying the wrong thing.

"So…anyone wanna watch a movie?" Don finally asked, breaking the silence.

Raph grinned, so did Leo and Shimi. "Yeah, that sounds good, I missed tv."

"Yeah, me too," Mashimi agreed and shot Raph a grin.

It was enough for now, Raph followed his three brothers downstairs. He felt a certain tension in his shoulders he hadn't even known was there slowly fade away. Now to keep the peace for as long as possible. Raph shook his head amused, knowing it would most likely be a matter of hours before some argument broke out again. But that was alright. Because right now, they were alright. Life was alright.

* * *

**A/N: Aw, I totally skipped their sewer adventure, bad me! :p :p But it's TMNT so those sewers will be back eventually, and sooner than these kids would like. And thank you for the reviews so far, I lurve getting them :D**


	14. Night of Death

Night of Death

How long he'd been asleep Don didn't know, but suddenly his eyes flew open. It took him a moment to figure out he was awake and that it wasn't morning yet. He heard the blanket on Mikey's bed on the other side of the room rustle. Sitting up he peered in the darkness and saw his brother sitting up in bed as well.

"What is it?" Don whispered.

"Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"I dunno, sounded like a crash or something."

The boys looked at the door to their bedroom, straining to hear something, then jumped when they suddenly heard a voice shouting. Mikey let out a little yelp in surprise and the brothers shared a startled look. They didn't recognize the voice that had just shouted, but before they could wonder anymore they heard Yoshi's familiar voice shout as well. The words were indistinct, but the urgency was clear.

Suddenly Don felt very afraid. He'd never heard that tone in his father's voice before, one of fear. His head snapped to Mikey when his brother slipped out of bed. Quickly Don got out as well, not wanting Mikey to leave the room by himself, or wanting to stay by himself for that matter, they had no idea what had just happened or who that other voice belonged to. But before they reached the door another, louder, crash sounded, freezing them both on the spot. Again they heard their father's voice shout something, but this time it was more of a command.

Sharing another look Don and Mikey nodded at each other in silence, then crept to the door. Mikey reached it first and slowly and silently turned the handle, quietly opening the door just wide enough to peer through. Huddling together to look outside they saw the door to their other brothers' bedroom open as well. Mashimi's head poked out, and he spotted them as well.

There was an argument going on downstairs now, but the sound of hurried footsteps coming their way drew their attention. They saw Splinter rushing up the stairs and Don felt his heart plummet into his stomach at the look on his face. He looked…scared? The old rat reached them in what seemed to be one stride, grabbing the door to fling it open wider. At the same time he motioned frantically to Mashimi, "Mashimi, get your brothers! Now! Hurry!" he whispered urgently. Mashimi's head ducked back inside his room

Feeling even more scared now, Don looked over at Mikey and saw fear in his brother's eyes as well. There was something going on downstairs, their father might be in real trouble! Don looked back up at Splinter, wanting to ask him what was going on; why wasn't he helping their father?! He wanted to go downstairs himself, help somehow when another crash sounded, making Splinter whip his head back towards the stairs, his ears flat, but he didn't move. And then Don knew that he wouldn't be much help himself. If even Splinter was running away, then what could a 10 year old do?

Mashimi, Leo and Raph quickly ran from their room to Don and Mikey's, all three wearing their masks now. Splinter quickly followed them in and shut the door behind him, barely missing his own tail.

"Listen to me, children, do not ask questions. We need to leave, now, and we must do so quickly and silently!" Splinter told them in a whisper again, his voice raw, and quickly walked over to the window, pushing the curtains aside to open it.

"But, uncle Splinter, what about…" Leonardo started to ask but Splinter's hand shot up, instantly quieting Leo.

"Please, no questions. Just follow me, and keep _quiet_!"

The boys shared a scared look but quickly moved to obey. Don grabbed his mask as he rushed past his bed, putting it on while the others climbed out onto the fire escape with Splinter's help. Don went out last, following Mikey who had also grabbed his own orange mask and was holding it in his hand now.

There wasn't enough room for all of them so Splinter whispered to them to start to climb down, his ears frantically whipping around to catch every sound that could be heard. The moment Don's feet finally hit the fire escape he felt Splinter grab his elbow and move him along, following the others down to the alley. He felt a sense of dread and it was growing with every second.

Once gathered in the alley Splinter motioned for them to follow him again and quickly led them to the manhole Don now knew was there. They all quickly slipped inside one by one, Splinter going last so he could replace the cover above him. They were cast into complete darkness and Don felt a hand slip into his. Mikey. He gave his hand a quick squeeze.

"Remain quiet," Splinter whispered so quietly Don had to strain to hear him, "I have to ask you to practice every bit of stealth we have taught you these years, children, your lives may depend on it."

Alarmed Don felt Mikey tighten his hold on his hand in fear and tried to force some calm into his mind. It didn't work. What was going on? What about their parents? Were they alright? Splinter however continued talking, issues orders as if they were in the dojo instead of a dark and smelly sewer. He had sort of hoped to never come back here again after their little misadventure two years ago.

"It is too dark to see, so you must rely on your other senses. Do as we practiced, and follow me. Hold each other's hand to keep from losing each other!"

Don felt a hand on his arm and reached out to take it. This hand had five fingers. Mashimi. He continued to keep a tight grip on Mikey's hand.

Suddenly Mashimi pulled him along and Don nearly stumbled. Quickly he shook his head, reprimanding himself. He had to focus! Taking a deep breath –and instantly regretting it with this smell around him- he tried to rely on his other senses. Straining he tried to hear everything around him and heard the footsteps of his brothers. Squeezing his eyes shut, he tried to focus on that, noting he didn't even hear Splinter who must be walking in the front. There was one set of footsteps between Splinter and himself, that meant only Mashimi walked in front of him, Raph and Leo must be walking behind Mikey. Yes, he could hear them, three sets of footsteps behind him. They were loud though. And come to think of it, so was he.

He did his best to quiet his step, but he didn't have a lot of experience walking anywhere but on nicely kept floors. This floor in the sewer was wet, dirty, gritty and he felt something sticky and mushy now and then. How was he supposed to keep quiet in all that?? But Splinter was doing it, and he had asked them to do so as well. Biting his lower lip Don tried to shift his body, get into a better position for stealth. It wasn't easy with a brother on either hand but after a few minutes he started to notice a change, they were all walking much more silently now. His brothers must have noticed the same thing and adjusted their pace as well.

However even while focusing on keep quiet his mind started to wander back to the house. What had happened? What were they running from? Or who? Who had their father been shouting at? While still scared, Don felt a growing need to speak up, ask questions, figure out what was going on! Were they really running for their life as Splinter had said?

Suddenly he felt Mashimi squeeze his hand and then felt himself be tugged around a corner. Quickly he squeezed Mikey's hand, to warn him of the change of direction. Relieved he didn't hear any of his brothers behind him stumble or make any more sound than they had been. So far so good. Where were they going however? Did Splinter know? Or were they just running blindly now?

Don then forced his frantic mind to slow down, reminding himself that Splinter was a Utrom guardian that roamed the streets at night. He was even wearing his blue guardian's uniform right now. He knew his way through the city. Don just hoped that included what was below the city as well.

It took what seemed like hours before Mashimi suddenly slowed down and Don realized Splinter was suddenly standing next to him. He could vaguely see his uncle's form now that his eyes had adjusted to the darkness.

"Leonardo, do you have any reason to think we have been followed?" Splinter suddenly asked softly though his voice still held the same urgency as it had when they had left the house. Don figured Leo must be in the back.

After a moment of silence Leo answered, "No, master Splinter," automatically falling into student mode at the authority in Splinter's tone. Don wondered if his brother was feeling the pressure of what appeared to be an important question.

"Good, neither do I. We will be going up over here, children, follow me."

After a few moments of hearing just the slightest rustle of Splinter's clothing, Don suddenly saw a patch of light appear above them. Apparently it was still night though, there was artificial light coming from several different sources on the street. Surprised Don blinked at it, it had felt like they had been walking for so long that he thought it must have been morning already by now. How long had they been walking?

Mashimi let go of his hand as he climbed up after Splinter. Don looked behind him and saw Mikey's nervous face in the little light that made it down through the manhole. He squeezed Mikey's hand once before letting go of him, making his brother send him a little smile. Quickly Don scrambled up behind Mashimi, taking care to make as little sound as possible.

Surprised he realized they were right outside the Utrom nano technology office, Leatherhead's home! He made room for his brother's to climb up after him and looked around the street. There weren't any people in this area at night, but even so he suddenly felt very conscious of their presence here. Only Leonardo and Michelangelo were wearing shirts at the moment, and even that was not enough to hide the glaring fact that they were _not_ human. Don looked at Splinter, feeling new twinges of fear now, but saw that the rat was very aware of their position and was trying to get them to hurry up so they could move to a more secluded area.

As soon as Leo climbed out Splinter put the manhole cover back in place and urged them to quickly move towards the Utrom building. It was completely dark -as any company would be in the middle of the night- and Don feared they wouldn't be able to enter. He was surprised however when Splinter opened up a secret compartment in the wall, tapped in a code, and watched as the door first clicked, then opened up to admit them.

"Hurry inside, boys, nobody must see us!" Splinter hissed as he kept looking around them to spot any possible humans.

Doing as they were told the brothers hurried inside and knowing their way ran to the area that held the entrance to the actual underground base, a room that looked like an ordinary storage room. Before they could enter however the door opened in front of them and a man came out that they recognized as one of their Utrom teachers. He spotted them, and judging by the surprised look on his face -his robotic face- he hadn't been expecting them at all.

"Boys! What are you…? …Splinter? What is going on? Why are you here?" he said as he moved past the brothers towards Splinter who had quickly followed them after making sure one last time that nobody had seen them, and locking the door once more.

"Something horrible has happened, Neila," Splinter answered hurriedly, his voice for the first time since their flight sounding strained and hoarse. Hearing it made Don shudder in fear.

"Let us go down, quick, I must speak to the council at once, we may all be in grave danger!"

"Of course, Splinter, follow me. We'll contact the council at TCRI at once," Neila said.

Feeling his heart beat painfully fast Don and his brothers quietly followed them into the storage room.

"Uncle Splinter? What about mom and dad?" Mashimi asked as Neila toggled the hologram that hid the entrance to the Utrom base below before leading them all through it.

It seemed like Splinter wasn't going to answer at first, but then he shut his eyes for a moment and seemed to be in pain.

"Uncle Splinter?" Don asked alarmed, making Neila turn around and look at them.

"This is not the time, children, I will…But first we must get help. We…I shall explain everything later, when we're all safe," Splinter said, his voice nearly breaking, not looking at them. Not understanding why exactly, but Don suddenly felt tears gather in his eyes. This was bad, he knew it was.

But again they were quickly rushing onwards until Splinter said something to Neila in a low voice. Don couldn't make out what he said, but the Utrom had opened up his robotic midsection by now and Don could see a shocked reaction on both Utrom and robotic face. Then Neila nodded at Splinter and slowed down while looking at him and his brothers, "Boys, come with me. I'll take you somewhere where you can wait until we…until we can sort this out," he said, and started to lead them in another direction as Splinter broke out into a jog and quickly disappeared from their view.

"No! We should go with uncle Splinter!" Leonardo protested and tried to follow, only to be stopped by Neila as he held out a robotic arm to catch him.

"No, Leonardo. Splinter needs to hurry and get help. We cannot slow him down and endanger even more people by doing so."

Confused Leo obeyed and Donatello lifted a hand to shift the wet purple cloth around his eyes a bit as he watched his brother's shoulders slump. It was a good thing his mask hid his tears, they had other things to worry about right now, like what was going on and where were their parents??

They boys were led to a room that often served as one of their classrooms. Neila told them to sit down which they quietly did so, sharing scared glances now and then. They were left alone when the Utrom told them he'd be back with something to drink for them.

"What's going on?" Mikey wailed the moment the door closed, his voice thick, and Don could see that the orange mask was showing damp patches.

"Nobody is telling us anything!" Raph growled as he got up, walked over to the door, and kicked it as hard as he could. The metal door didn't even move.

"Calm down, guys, I'm sure that…I'm sure uncle Splinter has everything under control," Mashimi said in a voice softer than usual. Don couldn't be sure with the mask over his older brother's eyes but he thought they looked rather wide.

"Then why did he make us run through the sewers?" Raph demanded, "Without mom or dad!"

"I think somebody attacked our home," Leonardo said, his voice also quivering a bit, "And that dad stayed behind to fend off the enemy while we escaped."

"But what about mom? She can't fight, she should have come with us!" Mikey insisted.

"We never should have fled in the first place!" Raph shouted, and kicked the door again with a growl, "We should have stayed behind with dad and fought!"

"We're too young…" Leo tried to reason, but sounded like he actually agreed with Raph. Even Don agreed with Raph, though logically he knew they wouldn't have been much help against a skilled enemy.

"We need to find out what happened," Mashimi suddenly insisted and got up as well, though he didn't go any further as he apparently didn't know what to do next.

"Let's find uncle Splinter," Leonardo offered, also getting up now.

Don frowned at this, "We don't know where he is though."

"Well, you're the smart one, Don, where's the communication room in this place?" Mashimi asked him, sounding half sarcastic, half hopeful.

Unfortunately Don didn't know and shrugged, "There's several actually, I don't know which one he went to…"

Mashimi sighed and Don felt a spark of anger. It wasn't his fault he didn't know! Then he suddenly got an idea, "But I know how to get to Leatherhead's room from here, he'll help us figure out what is going on!"

The others quickly agreed to this idea and soon they were dashing through the hallways that were sometimes organic and sometimes metallic, following Donatello whenever he made a turn. The few Utroms they encountered watched them zip by with surprise.

While they were all more or less familiar with this place from their frequent explorations when they were here, Don had spent a lot more time here during the last few years, taking more lessons from the Utroms and learning more about their advanced technology and general experience. He knew more about the function of the many underground rooms and areas, which led to what, and what shortcuts could be used. Leatherhead had also recently gotten a new room, one closer to the lab he had found himself working in more and more these days and except for Don, the boys hadn't seen it yet.

Landing after another short ride through one of the many organic transportation tubes Don ran around a final corner and skidded to a halt in front of a door, "It's here guys!" he panted, and quickly knocked on the door.

They all waited, intently watching the door, but nothing happened. Don stepped forwards and knocked again, louder this time, reminding himself again that it was still in the middle of the night and that their friend was most likely deep asleep, "Leatherhead! Wake up! It's me! Don!"

Again they waited a few seconds, now sharing a few nervous looks, and again nothing happened.

"You sure it's here, Donnie?" Mashimi asked.

"Of course I am!" Don answered without looking away from the door, slightly irritated. Finally he reached for the panel next to the door and pushed a button that would let them enter if the door wasn't locked. It wasn't.

They hesitantly walked inside the dark room, hoping not to startle their friend, when Don hit the light switch and revealed an empty bedroom. Surprised, and feeling a dread sense of disappointment wash over him, Don walked to the middle of the room and turned around. It was definitely Leatherhead's room as they recognized his belongings, but he wasn't there. The large bed he slept in was empty.

"Where is he?" Mikey asked confused.

"I don't know…" Don replied, feeling useless all of a sudden. It had seemed like such a good idea, but now they had run all the way here only to find out they had done so for nothing. If Leatherhead wasn't in his room then he could be pretty much anywhere. And while this particular Utrom base wasn't as large as some of the others in the city, it was far from small either.

"Hey, you guys remember when Leatherhead once told us he'd sometimes go to the lowest level just to be by himself?" Leonardo suddenly said, looking around at them.

"You think he might be there now?" Mashimi asked.

"Where else would the guy be in the middle of the night?" Raph said, slightly grinning now.

So once more Donatello led them to the closest tube that would lead them to their destination, and without trouble or delay they got to the lowest level. This time they didn't encounter any Utroms on the way down and the hallways seemed emptier. They spread out, calling their friend's name, but didn't take them long however to realize that he wasn't here either. This area wasn't very large and he should have heard them shout by now if he was here.

"Where is he?" Mikey asked sadly when they had all gathered back together again and slumped down against a crate.

"Maybe we should get back. Professor Neila must be worried about us by now," Leonardo suggested half heartedly.

Nobody made a move to return however and they all gathered around Mikey, sitting down on the floor or leaning against the crate as well. Don sat down next to Mikey and pulled up his knees. Again worried thoughts rushed through his mind. At least while he'd been focused on getting to Leatherhead he'd been able to ignore the fear he felt, but now that their search had officially failed, it all came back twice as strong. Why hadn't their mother at least come with them, surely she didn't think she could fight off whatever attackers had come to their home?

But, what if they hadn't been attackers? What if they had just been, like, ordinary burglars? And the reason they had all had to flee was because they didn't want them to find out mutants lived in the house? That would explain why their human parents stayed behind while the mutants all fled. Well, and Mashimi, but maybe Splinter hadn't wanted to leave him behind with burglars in the house. Don glanced at his arm, hating the green tinge all of a sudden. He'd never hated it before, but if it was the cause for their run into the dark night while leaving their parents behind…

His mind then reminded him that this theory didn't explain Splinter's distress, or his warning that they might all be in danger. And besides, if there really had been burglars, clumsy burglars that didn't know anything about ninjitsu, then Don was pretty sure his dad and uncle Splinter could have just knocked them unconscious without anyone getting hurt or finding out about them.

Slowly he wrapped his arms around his legs and lowered his head to lean against his knees. What was going on…

Again he didn't know how much time had passed, but suddenly they all sat up straight when they heard a familiar voice call out their names.

"Leatherhead!" Mikey shouted excitedly and scrambled to his feet before rushing off with Don and his other brothers quickly following.

They found their tall friend standing next to the tube that had led them here. He was wearing the white lab coat he always wore nowadays. When he spotted them running towards him the alligator looked relieved and hurried over to them, "My friends, I was so worried when I could not find you!"

"We were looking for _you_, LH!" Raph said, almost laughing from the broken tension.

"Yes, I figured as much when I saw you had been to my room."

"How did you know we'd been there?" Leo asked puzzled.

"You left the light on," Leatherhead answered dryly.

"Oh, oops, sorry," Don said sheepishly.

"That is quite alright, my friend. I'm just glad I remembered to look for you down here. Everybody is looking for you."

A few guilty looks were exchanged as they realized they hadn't told anyone where they were going.

"We just wanted to know what was going on, nobody was telling us anything so we hoped you could maybe help us find out," Mashimi explained with a sigh.

Leatherhead nodded his head, and Don frowned at his friend. He didn't seem surprised at all.

"Leatherhead? Do you know what is going on?" he asked him hesitantly. His heart dropped when Leatherhead sighed, lowered his head, and nodded.

"What? What is going on?! Where are our mom and dad!" Raph demanded roughly then, fists at his sides.

Leatherhead silently indicated they follow him and walked over to some smaller crates where they could sit down. Settling down on the floor himself so he would be more or less at eyelevel with them he sighed again before he started to explain, "I couldn't sleep tonight, so I went back to the lab to continue working on the…well, that isn't important," he said while shaking his head, trying to organize his thoughts. "I finally felt sleepy a little while ago and was on my way back to my room when I saw master Splinter. Wishing to greet him I followed and only then noticed his…agitated state."

Don swallowed, unconsciously leaning forwards as he willed Leatherhead to speak faster.

"When I caught up to him in the comm. room he was speaking to the council…and I overheard him explain what happened at your house. I…well, when he saw me he asked me to keep you all company until he returned, so I came in search of you after finding out you were no longer where Professor Neila had left you."

"Cut to the chase already, LH, tell us what happened!" Raph asked harshly as he was obviously no longer able to remain quiet.

Leatherhead nodded his head quickly, "Yes, but…please understand that our elders did for you what they thought best."

This didn't make Don feel any better and again he swallowed nervously, wondering if he really wanted to hear this.

"Do you know who the Shredder is?" Leatherhead asked, an edge to his voice as he said the name.

The boys frowned but none spoke up right away.

"I think he's an enemy of dad's," Mashimi finally said, "I think he and uncle Splinter mentioned that name when they thought we couldn't hear."

Leatherhead nodded an affirmative, "Indeed he is, and an enemy to the Utroms and all who are allied to them as well. He has caused much grief in the past and in large is even responsible for the Utroms being stuck on Earth," he continued to explain before getting interrupted by Raphael who didn't feel like listening to a history lesson right now.

"Ok, but what happened at our house?!"

"Yes, forgive me, I shall attempt to explain. The Shredder has apparently found out where your family lives, though he most likely has only targeted your father and uncle. He wished to extract the Utrom locations from them when he came to your house this night…by force if needed."

Don heard a few gasps at this and felt his own fear increase.

"And, well, I'm afraid I must share some bad news with you, my friends, horrible news." Leatherhead took a deep breath before continuing, obviously struggling now, and Don held his own breath, not realizing all his brothers were doing the same.

"I'm afraid the Shredder…he has killed your mother…"

Don found himself staring at Leatherhead, waiting for him to tell them something else, something that would make more sense. His mind went blank, something Don wasn't used to, and he simply stared at his large alligator friend.

"No! No, he didn't! Don't lie to us, Leatherhead!"

Shocked Donatello looked over at Mashimi, who was now standing and pointing accusingly at Leatherhead. Another shout made him turn his head to look at Raph, watching his red masked brother get up and glare at Leatherhead as well, fists held up as if he wished to attack their friend.

"I'm very sorry, Mashimi, but it is what I heard master Splinter tell the council, and what he confirmed to me afterwards himself when I asked if it were true. The Shredder and his men first ambushed the store next to your house and killed the guards in the storage company as well, cutting off all communication with the Utrom bases so they could not be warned," he started to explain, trying to give them time to understand what had happened by giving them the whole story. "After that they broke into your home, catching your parents and uncle off guard. They could not fend them off and the Shredder demanded they give them the location to the Utrom base as he had not been able to discern this information from the other two locations around your home. Your father refused, and the Shredder…he killed Tang Shen."

Don suddenly sniffled and felt tears burning. Blinking he suddenly reached behind his head and untied his mask, letting the tears flow down freely as he let the purple cloth fall to the ground. Leo was sitting next to him and shifted closer to put an arm around him. Don leaned closer to his brother, feeling Leo's body tremor with grief as well. Raph was still standing rooted to the spot, still glaring, but his gaze was no longer focused and his hands were no longer fists. Mashimi let himself fall back down but crashed to the floor when he missed the crate he'd been sitting on. Mikey quickly got up sobbing and sat down on the floor next to him, putting his arms around Mashimi. After a few moments Mashimi returned the hug.

"Your father became enraged," Leatherhead continued, his voice thick, "And told your uncle to take you boys to safety while he'd cover your back." He reached up and wiped at his own eyes. "That is all I know. Master Splinter has gathered some of the other guardians and left to help your father, and hopefully put a stop to the Shredder."

Only the sound of soft crying broke the following silence.

"I am so sorry, my friends, I truly am. Tang Shen, she was the closest thing I ever had to a mother myself. The world will be so much emptier without her."

"Mom's dead?"

Don shifted his head a little so he could see Raph through his tears. His brother was still standing in the same spot, but he was no longer glaring. He saw his face going through several emotions in a matter of seconds. Leo increased his hold on him then with a shuddered sob and Don buried his face into his brother's shoulder again.

"Yes, Raphael, I'm afraid she is."

"Why?" The question came out as a wail, then Raph fell down to his knees and a let out a heartbroken scream before breaking down into tears, covering his eyes with his hands.

Leatherhead reached out and pulled Raphael closer, burying the boy in his arms as he hugged him. Raph didn't resist and simply grabbed hold of the white lab coat. No more words were spoken. No more words were needed.

* * *

**A/N: :(**


	15. Life Goes On

Life Goes On

With a start Mikey sat up in bed, panting. Quickly he looked around in the dark, his hand already shoving his covers away.

"Donnie? I had a nightm…oh."

Coming to a stop with one foot already on the floor the young turtle remembered he was alone. Biting on a lip he slowly eased back onto his bed and sat still, listening to the silence around him. His breathing was already slowing down, but the images from his nightmare were still rather vivid in his memory. Swallowing back a whimper the turtle boy looking in the direction of the door, weighing his options of going in search of somebody willing to comfort him, or just staying in bed like a big boy should. Difficult decision.

It was a month after the turtle's eleventh birthday, eight months since Tang Shen had died. The attack on their home had forced the family to move out as they were no longer safe there. Having no other place available to go to they had been forced to take refuge in one of the Utrom bases and were pretty much settled in by now. They had been given a few adjoining rooms to sleep in, but other than that they simply had to share the living areas used by the Utroms as well.

Sighing Mikey let himself fall back onto his pillow, his Utrom-designed mattress easily changing it's shape to allow his shell to sink into it comfortably. Staring up at the dark ceiling Mikey wished for the so manieth time that they still shared their bedrooms. Unfortunately the rooms they had been given were kind of small, just as small as any of the other rooms by their gracious hosts, rooms too small to fit two growing boys and all their belongings. His comic book collection alone took up quite some space for itself! But even so, he'd almost, _almost_, be willing to give up his comic books if it meant one of his brothers could share a room with him again.

Turning to his side the young turtle pulled the covers up higher, trying to will the nightmare to fade from his memory. It was a silly nightmare anyway, one he'd been having for eight months now and even he knew why he was having it. But that didn't make it any less scary when he was asleep, or any less disappointing when he woke up and remembered that there was no handy brother nearby he could confide in.

Almost every night it was the same thing, no matter what he was dreaming, it would turn into the same thing. He would find himself looking into an office, somewhere high up in one of those really tall buildings he'd never been in but had seen many times. He'd be looking at some boring workers sitting at their desks, doing whatever boring work people like that did in their little cubicles. Someone would get up and walk to the photocopier or something, then return to their desk, all looking like they were barely awake. Nobody would talk, just work like a bunch of zombie drones obeying orders blindly. It was at that point that Mikey would start to get bored with watching them and instead turn his attention to all the equipment they had, a move he always hoped he would skip the next time he had this dream again. The photocopier would be there, a fax machine, a vending machine selling every kind of soda Mikey had ever heard of, a bubbling water cooler, an old fashioned and boxy looking computer screen on every desk in every cubicle…and then he'd look under a desk to see if the matching computer was also big and ancient. That's when the boring dream would turn to nightmare as his vision would trail from the computer, to the waste basket, and finally to the paper shredder beneath a desk. A simple, grey paper shredder, harmless and ordinary in every way, except for the two red glowing eyes that stared right back at Mikey.

Squeezing his eyes shut Mikey tried not to remember what came next but was unable to stop the nightmare from replaying in his head.

As the seemingly living shredder stared back at Mikey it would grow a mouth that would grin in a terrifying and knowing way, showing pointed teeth that could do more to a piece of paper than just shred it. And as this vision started to really scary the turtle in his dream, the sound of a door opening would pull his attention away from the terrifying object. Mikey would look to the side to see a secretary or something walk in with a bunch of papers in her hands, seemingly oblivious to the office space growing darker and more menacing with every step she took towards the desk. The only desk in the room now.

That's when Mikey would get a good glimpse of her face and realize it was his mother, and she was heading straight for the evil looking paper shredder. Calling out to his mother to warn her, the turtle boy would only then realize that he wasn't inside, but actually on the other side of the window looking in. He would also realize then that for some reason the Utroms had placed this window the wrong side out, meaning he could look in, but his mother couldn't see him on the outside! It was at this point that Mikey would start to scream and cry, just knowing what was about to happen and seeing no way to stop it from doing so. Beating frantically with his fists on the window to try and get her attention he'd then watch her casually bend over to destroy the stack of papers she was holding by putting them one by one in the paper shredder, never noticing how the simple device not only had eyes and a mouth, but was turning them towards her.

In his dream he was screaming at the top of his lungs now, though not a sound of it ever reached her, beating his fists against the glass. Through his tears he would watch her finish her work and straighten up again, about to head back to the door, when the paper shredder would suddenly lash out and grab a hold on the hem of her dress with it's nasty teeth and yank her back. Before his mother could even react the evil shredder would somehow increase in size and seize the woman between gigantic grinders, flashing dangerously with sharpness. As Tang Shen was devoured by the machine the whole thing turned so graphic it made the young turtle wish he hadn't watched so many scary gory movies in his life. Her eyes caught onto his as she somehow finally spotted him on the other side of the glass. She'd open her mouth to say something to him, something important he knew, but before she could she vanished completely between the sharp grinders, leaving only stains to show what had just happened.

A tear escaped Mikey as he huddle beneath his covers now, his eyes still squeezed shut.

"Stupid nightmare, go away!" he hissed angrily in a soft tone.

His mother hadn't been killed by a stupid paper shredder, that was ridiculous. Like it was Mikey's fault his dad's archenemy or whatever had such a stupid nickname! The Shredder. Stupid!

"Who names himself after a paper cutter…!" he whispered, trying to sound disdainful, but feeling a little fearful at the same time. No matter how much he hated his nightmare and tried to make light of a name, the fact remained that this person still existed. And had killed his mother. A sob escaped him now and he balled his fists into the covers.

* * *

The next morning the four turtle brothers were sitting in a semi circle around Splinter with their eyes closed while he led them through a meditation. They sat quietly and focused, or pretending to be focused in some of their cases Leo was sure, waiting for the moment Splinter would announce the end of this session so they could leave.

"Alright, my boys, you may open your eyes. I hope you managed to gain some insight from this exercise and that you will use it wisely."

Michelangelo was already standing up before Splinter had even finished his sentence, earning himself a frown from the rat. Grinning innocently the turtle put his hands together in front of his chest and gave him a bow, "Thank you for the lesson, master Splinter!" he said politely. Splinter sighed, shook his head then waved permission for them to leave. Leonardo bowed to his uncle in silence as the formerly quiet room filled with voices. The four brothers walked through the doorway that led to a long metallic hallway, one of the many in the Utrom hideout they now lived in. Leonardo silently followed the others.

It had been a large adjustment to make, and to be honest, Leo still didn't feel at home here. The whole place looked either so sterile –probably because it was- or so squishy organic. It wasn't a bad place to live, and the Utroms were very kind to them, but it wasn't _home_. He missed having a living room where he and his brothers could crash in front of the tv together or play a game or something. Not that there weren't some recreational areas where they could do just that now, but it just wasn't the same.

The only thing he did appreciate from this move was that they now lived in the same place as Leatherhead, meaning they got to spend much more time with their friend, something all the boys were very grateful for during the early months after their mother's death. Leo squeezed his eyes shut for a moment as he kept walking, ignoring the talking around him. They still missed her very much, and Leo knew he was not the only one who felt anger at her murder. Splinter tried to help them with meditation, and while it did help a little, it didn't make it go away. Nor bring her back. It wasn't just her death either, or the forced move from the only home they could remember, there had been so many other changes as well, and Leo had discovered he didn't like change very much.

Their father Yoshi had been completely heartbroken after the murder of his wife, and for weeks afterwards he walked around as if in a daze. It had made Leo and his brothers feel very uncomfortable to see their father so defeated. But once Yoshi suddenly snapped out of it, they would have preferred it to what they had now. They hardly got to see their father anymore as he now spent not only nights but also days away from the base. Officially he had taken on more shifts patrolling the city and was giving even more training classes to lower ranked guardians, but they suspected he was also trying to find a way to get to the Shredder. Whenever they did see their father he seemed different, a silent fury to his every feature, gesture and word that alternatively awed and intimidated the boys.

His uncle Splinter had pretty much taken over their training by himself as he rarely went out with the other guardians anymore. The rat still wore the blue uniform, but had also taken a cane to move around with. This had confused Leo at first: he had known Splinter was old, but it had just never occurred to him just how old he actually was. And ever since Splinter started using that cane he and his brothers couldn't ignore the fact that Splinter moved slower than he used to. Suddenly the many times his mother had fussed over the rat seemed to make more sense. His uncle could still fight like one of the best, move with skill and grace and never showed any weakness when they were training, but at any other time his movements had become slower, delicate even.

Leo frowned at Don as his brother accidentally bumped into him. His brother offered a quick apology before turning back to Raph to continue their conversation. Leo didn't respond.

A couple of months after his mother's death another change had come, and this time from Mashimi. His older brother had asked them to gather because he wanted to ask them something. Whatever Leo had expected Mashimi to say then, it hadn't been this. His brother had told them that he would like to go school, an actual human school, with other human kids, but that he would not do this if they didn't want him to. It had been a blow to all of them, and Leo knew he wasn't the only one who felt a little betrayed by the thought of Mashimi wanting to get to know other kids. But it wasn't just that, it was also the thought that he _could_ get to know other kids. Never before had the difference between them been so glaringly obvious. They were mutants, he was human. He could fit in with the outside world, they couldn't even show their faces there. Even so they had all eventually given their blessing, some reluctantly like Leo, some enthusiastically like Donatello. And now Mashimi spent many hours away from them, at his new school. That's where he was right now.

At first Leo had secretly hoped that his brother would discover he didn't really like going to school, or that maybe he wouldn't get along with the other kids. But nothing of sort happened. Mashimi was in fact very happy with his classes and had had little trouble making friends. It made Leo feel jealous.

"Ok, I'll see you guys later!"

Blinking Leo watched Donatello run off and realized they had reached their bedrooms. Right, that meant his purple masked brother was now off to his private lessons as he did every day. Leo sighed. Another one of those changes.

Opening the door to his bedroom Leo walked over to his bed and sat down on it. He turned his head to look at his twin katana perched on a rack next to his desk. That had been _another_ change. From the start all of them had been training with katana swords, the weapons his father and uncle Splinter wielded, but recently Yoshi had shown up at one of their training sessions with the announcement that they should decide for themselves which weapon they would prefer to make their own. He'd offered no explanation, not to them anyway.

Only Leo and Mashimi had felt no need to switch to a different weapon. Now they were the only ones of the five boys who continued to practice with the swords, though they each had two instead of one now. It made for very different weapon training, and Leo wasn't too happy about that, though he had to admit his brothers on the other hand seemed much more at ease with their new weapons. Especially Don had appeared to be happy to give up the sword and take up that stick. Don had never been really good at wielding the katana, though he had been improving, it just didn't come close to the level of skill some of the others were showing. But why Mikey chose to go with the nunchaku was beyond Leo. It was like asking for trouble. Or a concussion. Then there was Raph who now wielded sai instead of the katana. A defensive weapon for his aggressive brother. It was like the world had been turned upside down when their mother died.

So now Mashimi spent a lot of his time at school, away from them, and his other brothers were learning to wield different weapons. Everything was changing, everything was different. Leo wasn't even sure he was the same person anymore either. It had definitely felt like a part of him had died when his mother did. And with Mashimi gone a lot of the time when before Leo had spent almost all of his time with him, it was like another piece was missing. He didn't even share a bedroom with his older brother anymore like he had for as long as he could remember. During their classes Leonardo remained quiet except when asked a question. He paid attention though, he made sure to always pay attention. If his father wanted him to make their mother proud through their accomplishments, then Leo would make sure he would grab every opportunity given to him to improve himself. He may not be able to go to any fancy schools or have all that many options when it came to his future, but he'd try to be the best at what was available to him. With or without his human brother's help.

* * *

When they first moved to the Utrom hideout Don had been excited and pleased when he was offered to start a more advanced curriculum on a daily basis to increase his studies. At first he'd thought he wouldn't have any trouble with this and only considered the advantages, but with all the other big changes in their life lately Donatello found he really didn't want to add this particular change to it, even if it was for his own benefit. While it was exciting to learn more about new and complicated subjects, he was always alone doing so. Of course there were the Utroms, pleased as they were to have an opportunity to nurture a brilliant mind, and there was Leatherhead as well, but it was still different. The Utroms were his teachers, Leatherhead almost an adult now. Don wasn't used to be being the only student, and great though it may be to have the teacher's sole attention, he simply missed having his brothers around him.

After about a month he'd requested to switch back and simply sit in with his brothers again, and take extra classes afterwards like he had done before. To his surprise this hadn't been received very well. For some reason all the adults seemed to think he would be wasting his potential if he did this. In short: request denied. To his own embarrassment he had then eventually degraded himself to bad behavior during his lessons, not paying attention –which was hard because it was really interesting- and even talking back and giving sarcastic nonsense answers like he'd heard Raph do before. He didn't like doing it, but smart as he was, he didn't see another way to make them understand he really didn't want to be separated from his brothers more than he already was.

In the end a compromise was reached between the boy and the adults. Donatello would return to his brothers' classes in the morning but receive different tasks and assignments. Then in the afternoon he would receive private lessons that were mostly used to answer questions he'd come up with during his morning classes. Don was happy with this arrangement as all he'd have to give up was a few hours of hanging out with his brothers after their classes instead of not seeing them the entire morning.

That's why he couldn't understand why Mashimi managed so well. Not only was he away from them for such long periods of time, he even enjoyed it. While Donatello had been his biggest supporter when Shimi wanted to go to a human school, it hadn't been because he wished his brother to be gone. Sure, they had their disagreements and everything, but Don loved his older brother and didn't like him being away so much. He had simply hoped that going to a different school would help Mashimi get a chance to develop his own talents. Even after all this time his older brother still held a small grudge against Don, always refusing to turn to him for help with homework or something similar.

The change in school had helped a bit, just not the way Donatello had expected. First of all Mashimi had found out that for a boy his age he was very advanced. Apparently the Utroms had higher standards of education than the humans, and this meant Mashimi enjoyed a certain reputation of being a "smart kid" at school. Now normally this would have made him a target for teasing, but his ninja background had soon taught the other kids that he shouldn't be messed with.

Don knew this because Mashimi liked to tell about the human school every day. This was also why his own relationship with his older brother had greatly improved. The humans taught some classes they had never experienced, like drama and mythology, something the Utroms didn't have a firm grasp on, and human history from a human's point of view was very different as well apparently. Now Donatello didn't really have a big interest in either of these, but simply the fact that these subjects among others like shop class were given to kids in human schools, interested him. He wished to know more about it and thus became a willing audience to Mashimi's retellings of his day at school, and would always have a dozen questions at the ready which in turn made Mashimi happy to be the one with the answers for once.

Finally being in a position to answer Don instead of only ask had made Mashimi more accepting of his younger brother. They could now even joke together, especially when it came to Mashimi's stories of the others kids in PE class, that had them all laughing out loud. Listening to how the human kids learned how to dodge balls and swing on a rope, while they themselves could avoid sharp weapons and balanced on thin poles that reached high above the ground. It was funny to hear.

Don would have liked to be able to join Mashimi, even if it meant attending even more classes in one day. Not that he really saw that as something negative really, more classes meant more to learn after all and another brother to spend more time with.

As Don walked back to their bedrooms after his own lessons were over in search of his brothers, he let his mind wander to what Mashimi had told him about shop class. Apparently he had seen some of the older students' projects. They were making lamps while working with electricity. This sparked Don's interest and he realized that while he knew all about electricity, he really didn't know how to go about making something as simple as a lamp. Could he do this? Probably, if he found something to tell him how to go about it. The trick would be to get his hands on all the required parts but he was sure he could get some help from either the Utroms or Leatherhead. How hard could it be to make stuff yourself? With a grin he decided to look for some of his Utrom friends and inquire how he might go about getting some materials and get started on his own little project. Not a lamp though, no, that was for the humans. He'd have to think of something more interesting, more challenging. And maybe Mashimi would be willing to join him if Don brought it up just right, then they could have their own little school project! And didn't human schools have science projects or something? Maybe his brother already had to build something anyway. Maybe Don could help him with that! Excited the boy increased his pace.

* * *

Raph started to laugh as Mikey made a funny face, mimicking Leo's serious frown as the turtle in question walked in front of them. It made his older brother turn his head to look at them, but Mikey had quickly stopped and was smiling back innocently at Leo. After a final searching glance the turtle just faced forwards once more and continued walking in silence. Raph rolled his eyes at this. It was like Leo almost never talked anymore.

The three brothers were on their way to go see some Utrom scientist that had transferred to this base only a couple of months ago. The guy was working on something involving virtual reality and this had caught his brother Mikey's interest for some reason. Apparently it was used to improve work with small nanotechnology or something, Raph didn't really care, but Mikey had told him there were also other applications for this technology. Apparently they were also using it to simulate certain scenarios stored in their computers and so far Mikey had found out that they stored certain bits of their own history like this as well. This meant you could actually _see_ history, instead of read about it in a boring book!

Now why the Utroms hadn't come up with this by themselves was beyond Raph, but he had agreed to help Mikey who was determined to make the Utroms see reason and start to let them use this during their own, boring classes. His brother had also confided in him that his master plan was to somehow get his hands on this technology, or more specifically: let Don get his hands on it, and then create some sort of game out of the whole thing. A virtual reality game. Now Raph liked games as much as any other boy his age, but he had to admit there was a special appeal to not having to deal with this underground world they were forced to live in, away from home, away from any windows, away from their parents. It didn't sound so bad to instead spend time in a made up world where they could decide the rules, where they could just walk around and do whatever they wanted to. Even go and see any location they would like to! They could theoretically get to see the whole world without having to risk any punishment for leaving the safety of the Utrom base. Maybe even have some adventures!

As if reading his mind Mikey prodded his arm with his elbow, then winked when Raph turned his head to look at him and grinned. Raph grinned back. It was nice doing something they all could enjoy together. Even Leo had agreed to come along after all. Then Mashimi had sent them a text back on his cell phone, promising to come home as quickly as possible after school so he could join them after Mikey had sent him a message telling him about their plans.

Suddenly Mikey gave a shout and waved at Don as their purple masked brother popped out of one of the organic tubes they were heading towards.

"Don! You wanna come with us to go see that science dude's progress on the nano processing virtual reality program?" Mikey sasked excitedly.

Raph gave his brother a rough smack on the shoulder, "I can't believe you didn't trip on any of those words, bro." Mikey simply stuck out his tongue at him.

"Oh! I was sorta gonna try to…" Don started and Raph could see the disappointment on Mikey's face he felt himself as well at that moment. Then Don suddenly shook his head and smiled, "Well, you know what, never mind that, I'll come!"

As the now four brothers continued on their way Raph shot Mikey a grin, he had to admit his brother had done a good job of getting them all interested in the same thing and at the same time. A look of surprise on Mikey's face at this was quickly replaced by a beaming smile. Raph rolled his eyes once more, but kept grinning. Yeah, not bad at all.

Trying to stay quiet as the science guy explained something complicated that only Leo and Don were listening to, Mikey looked around the spacious lab they were standing in. So many tubes and wires, all those blinking lights, even some funky looking pods lying on the ground, it was all just begging to be touched. But he'd promised not to. Rocking back and forth on the balls of his heels Mikey increased his grip on his hands as he held them behind his shell, making sure temptation wouldn't take him. The Utrom –without any kind of robotic exosuit- was whipping around on his little floating platform as he was pointing out some numbers when the doors to the lab whooshed open, making then all turn around.

"Hey guys! Here I am!"

Mikey beamed as Mashimi came running towards them, Leatherhead right behind him. He'd completely forgotten to ask if Leatherhead would want to join them as well! This was perfect, they were all together now! He ran forwards and with a shout hugged his older human brother who laughed in surprise, then pushed him away with a grin.

"Hey, Leatherhead!" Mikey greeted their large friend.

"Hello, Michelangelo. Mashimi told me you were all coming here, and as I have been interested in professor Llewsor's work for a while now, hoped you wouldn't mind if I joined you."

"Duh, of course not, LH!" Mikey grinned up sheepishly and knocked on his own head with a fist, "I should have remembered to tell you!"

"Quite alright my friend, quite alright," Leatherhead chuckled, then moved to greet the Utrom who was looking a little impatient now.

They really were all together now. Mikey still couldn't get over it. Don always seemed to be going off somewhere doing smart things and becoming even more of a genius. Mashimi was away at some human school half the time and making new friends. Mikey was a little afraid he was starting to lose his brothers. Even Leatherhead wasn't always here at the base anymore as the project he was working on sometimes required him to be present at the main TCRI building for days at a time. How long until Raph would declare he was going to become a rocket scientist and move to NASA or something? This thought made him giggle and glance at his red wearing brother. Unfortunately, Raph caught the glance.

"What?" he demanded gruffly.

"Nothing, Raph, just picturing you as an astronaut."

"What?" Raph repeated, this time utterly confused.

Mikey laughed, then just to be careful moved so Leo was standing between himself and Raph, and tried to focus on the science dude again. Instead his gaze lingered on his blue masked sibling. If he had to be honest then Mikey had to admit that Leo was in fact the third brother who was slowly moving away from them. He hardly talked, didn't seem to smile anymore, and just seemed…down. Mikey had forgotten Leo liked old stuff though, like those books on ancient Japan, so using this fully to his advantage he had started to tell his brother that the Utrom scientist had promised to show him some of their history one day through the vitual reality machine -well, the thing had a better name than that, but Mikey couldn't recall what it was, nor had the aliens exactly promised anything, but Mikey silently considered it to be so- to entice his brother to join them. And it had worked as Leo was right here, and actually looking interested! This almost made up for having to sleep by himself without anyone to comfort him when he had a nightmare. Almost, he'd still prefer it if they could all just share one big room together.

Now if only he could figure out a way to make their father spend more time at the base with them and Splinter to spend less time meditating, or whatever it was their uncle did in his room, and be a little bit more…like himself. Even during training Splinter seemed different, more demanding. Sometimes it scared Mikey a little to see him like that. He wished he knew why his uncle had changed like that. Was he simply sad and taking out his grief on their training? Did he maybe want to prove he could train them by himself? Or was there another reason he was pushing them to get better faster? Did he know about some danger they had to prepare themselves for? Mikey thought of his nightmare again and shuddered. He hoped not. While he loved being a ninja and enjoyed their practice –except for all the work and stuff like that- he didn't know what to think about fighting enemies. One part of him thought it was super cool to be like a hero going out to fight crime and such, but on the other hand he'd rather just hang out with his brothers and friends.

"Now if you'll look over here you'll see the pods I've designed to allow a direct interface between the user and the computer, so the information can be perceived as actually being real."

Mikey blinked and realized his mind had drifted away again. Taking a deep breath he followed the others to stare at some screen the Utrom scientist was pointing at. Even so he kept casting a few glances at his brothers and Leatherhead, too happy to see them all in the same room together to be able to focus on the Utrom's words for very long. Donnie would explain it to him later anyway, in a language he could understand. Oh yeah, today he had been victorious, now it was just a matter of persistence and a lot of nagging and he'd get the whole family to spend some quality time together! Maybe once that happened, the nightmares would finally stay away.

* * *

A/N: I sorta disappeared when other things started to demand I pay more attention to them, like real life. I also didn't help that this chapter is just a filler and I kept trying to turn it into something more, bad me for not accepting the facts. But I'm back now and will continue this story!


	16. Joining the Ranks

Joining the Ranks

Donatello made very sure to remain sitting still in his seat, to keep his eyes on the proceedings in front of him, and above all: to keep smiling. That was the key to this evening, if he could keep smiling and could keep it looking natural, everything would be alright. So that was his one task for this occasion, his mission if you will: just to keep smiling. Not too wide to make it look fake or deranged, not too small to make it seem insincere, just the right amount of smiling needed to convince everybody around him that he was perfectly fine, was enjoying this even, and that he held no regrets whatsoever to be sitting in this chair instead of standing over there in the middle of the room with the rest of his brothers.

"You must be proud of your brothers, Donatello," came a whispered remark from his left.

The turtle shifted his head to the commentator, making sure to keep his smile even and genuine looking, "Of course I am, Davey! They are the youngest students ever to be accepted into the guardian ranks!" he whispered back enthusiastically, belatedly realizing he had started to grin rather widely while saying this. Oops, cut back on the grinning, he wasn't going for the deranged look, remember that. Davey, wearing the telltale blue uniform that indicated he too was a Utrom guardian, gave him a grin back. Apparently Don had pulled it off and had not raised any suspicions so far. Good.

Looking back at the eight young men standing in front of them, Don studied each of their faces. His oldest brother Mashimi was standing tall and straight, his human face serious as he kept his eyes looking straight ahead. Don knew him however and recognized that twinkle in his brother's eyes behind that brown mask: he was bursting with pride. And rightfully so, Don thought quietly as his eyes followed his father's approach to the boy now clad in guardian blue. Yoshi was smiling as he came to a stop in front of Mashimi, something Don hadn't seen his father do in a long time. It made him swallow and double his efforts on keeping his smile on his face. What would it be like to have that smile directed at him?

Most of the ceremony flowed right past Donatello. Partly because this by far wasn't the first time he'd seen one -though it was the first time he found himself sitting in the audience without his brothers- and partly because he didn't think he could keep this happy serene look going if he actually listened to the words being spoken as his four brothers were being marked for their outstanding commitment to their training, their loyalty to the Utroms, and their excellence in whatever else they were great at…

Of course Don knew his brothers were great, he knew very well that they were ready to become Utrom guardians even if they were rather young for it. Only yesterday they had celebrated Mashimi's 16th birthday, and in less than two months Don and his other three brothers would be celebrating their 15th. The youngest guardians ever in Utrom history. Don sighed.

"You ok, Donatello?"

Blinking Don turned back to Davey once more and smiled sheepishly, his mind working fast, "Yeah, it's just, you know, they're my brothers and this is a big moment for them. I'm really proud of them…"

Apparently this time Davey could not be fooled so easily.

"Aren't you training to be a guardian as well, Donatello?"

Barely able to keep from wincing Don nodded back at him, determined not to let his smile waver this time. Davey studied his face for a moment, but whatever he saw did not move him to question him any longer.

"One day you'll wear the uniform as well," Davey concluded with a nod and a grin before turning his attention back to the eight initiates.

Don did the same and saw them bow to the three head guardians standing in front of them, including his father and uncle. Apparently the ceremony had come to it's conclusion. It had seemed to last forever.

Soon Don found himself walking over to his siblings, his own white lab coat swirling around him as he went for the brother standing closest to him, Mikey. Throwing his arms around him Don hugged him fiercely, suddenly feeling a need to never let go again.

"Congratulations, Mikey," he managed to croak out as he kept his grip on the blue fabric now covering Michelangelo's shell.

"Dude! Donnie! Thanks, man!" came the surprised reply in Donatello's ear and he felt Mikey return the hug. This was only supposed to be a congratulatory move however, he couldn't stay standing like this no matter how much he wanted to. With effort and a sniffle that he managed to pass off as one of emotion over the ceremony, he pushed himself back. With a grin he looked at Mikey's eyes surrounded by the now very familiar orange cloth. He saw the same surprise there he had heard in his brother's voice. Alright, Don had to admit he normally didn't display his emotions so very openly, but surely it wasn't that weird to do so because he was proud of his brothers?

It looked like Mikey was about to ask him a question so Don quickly turned away and grabbed the next brother, Leo, and repeated the procedure by giving him a firm hug. Leo's reaction was slightly delayed, but as he returned the hug Don felt no hesitation in his movements. His brother's mask matched the blue uniform he now wore very well Donatello decided once he let go of him again, smiling grandly at Leo.

"Raph, you did it," he whispered in the next brother's ear. Raphael had by now expected the hug and had answered it right away.

"Thanks bro, wish you'd been here with us," came the whispered reply back, Raph's deep voice so low Don almost missed it. It made him squeeze his eyes shut for a moment, tightening his hold on Raph's shell beneath the blue fabric. He nodded his head and opened his mouth to answer in agreement, but nothing came out.

"Geez, Donnie, you're embarrassing us," came Mashimi's voice and Don let go of Raph to look at the last of his brothers. The eldest of the five was grinning widely as he stood with his fists on his hips.

For a moment Don felt a clear spike of jealousy, felt it clear and strong. Then he swallowed it down and grinned back, "Like I can help it you've finally given me a reason to be proud of you guys?" he said, shaking his head in mock exasperation. Thankfully his voice didn't betray him. As Mashimi laughed heartily at this, taking the teasing in his stride, Don moved up to him and threw his arms around his tallest brother as well.

"Thanks, Donnie," Mashimi said, patting his younger sibling's shoulder.

Don nodded back at his four brothers as they stood before him and couldn't help but note how they truly looked like they belonged together while wearing identical uniforms, while he in his white lab coat stood out rather clearly.

The celebration afterwards was merry and a combination of guardians, other human helpers and Utroms milling about with the new recruits. Leonardo popped a piece of what appeared to be fish into his mouth, quietly chewing as he listened to Mashimi talk. His brother was talking to one of the other human recruits, telling him about a girl in his class that was apparently as pretty as she was smart. It was a familiar topic coming from his older brother, and as long as the identity of the girl in question kept changing every few weeks or months Leo didn't worry too much about it. Apparently his older brother was popular among the human ladies, no big deal. Leo popped another snack into his mouth, this one looking a little different but still tasted like it came from a fish of some sort.

Both human males laughed at a joke Mashimi had made, and Leo smiled politely. One of his hands moved to stroke the blue fabric of his pants and he smiled slightly at the touch of it. A Utrom Guardian, like his father and uncle before him, wielding twin Kanata just like them as well, considered worthy enough to join them on their cause. Soon they would be allowed to accompany the seasoned guardians on their patrols through the city and actually go outside and do something meaningful. Leo was eager to start doing this, to prove he had indeed earned this promotion, and to make his father even prouder of him.

Suddenly a hand fell on his shoulder, making Leo jump slightly. Quickly he turned, feeling ashamed he'd been caught off guard like this, and stared at a scaly chest. Tipping his head back he found himself staring at a grinning Leatherhead.

"I did not mean to startle you, my friend, I simply wished to congratulate you and Mashimi, and apologize for not having made it to the ceremony on time."

"That's alright, Leatherhead, we heard that traffic was bad," Mashimi answered the large reptile, and accepted his extended hand for a congratulatory shake.

"Indeed it was, there appears to be a spectacle going on in the city tonight, a concert in the park I believe."

"Oh yeah! That's right!" said the other guardian recruit said excited, "There's supposed to be fireworks and everything!"

"Really?" Mashimi asked, obviously looking interested now.

"Yeah, we should go check it out! It'd be the perfect ending to this party!"

Mashimi beamed, "Let's do it and…" his voice trailed off as he looked at Leo and Leatherhead, "Oh, well, you know, maybe that's not a such a good idea. Tomorrow morning we start training with the guardians after all. We should make sure we're completely rested so we don't make a fool of ourselves on our first day," he continued apologetically to the other human.

The other however frowned at him, "You're kidding right? If they're ever going to be lenient with our hours it's tonight! This is our night!"

Mashimi cast another glance at Leo before turning back to the human shaking his head. Leo'd had enough however.

"Just go."

Both humans turned to stare at him. For some reason this really annoyed Leo.

"Go to the park, have fun," he said with a sigh, waving a hand dismissively at them.

"But Leo, we should celebrate together,-" Mashimi started to object but Leo interrupted.

"I'm going to bed soon anyway, make sure I get enough sleep for tomorrow's morning practice."

He watched his older brother chew his lower lip for a second as their eyes locked. Leo kept his face passive.

"Well, I suppose if we get permission we can go take a look and still get back in time," Mashimi eventually said, speaking slowly.

The other human recruit however was grinning widely however, seemingly oblivious to the silent conversation between the two brothers. "Alright, let's go ask Master Yoshi for permission then!" he said and pulled Mashimi along.

"Hey, is it true you're only sixteen?"

"Yup, had my birthday yesterday!"

"Awesome, I didn't even know we allowed recruits that young!"

Leonardo couldn't hear his brothers reply to this as the two humans disappeared into the small crowd of Utroms and guardians around them. He sighed, then once more jumped when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He'd forgotten Leatherhead had been standing next to him the whole time. Some ninja he made.

"Shall we join the others? I believe I saw Raphael and Michelangelo over there," the alligator spoke and motioned with his hand. Leonardo nodded silently.

"Dude, I look totally wicked in this outfit!"

Grinning widely Mikey struck a grand pose , making Raphael laugh.

"Mikey, you're so deluded it's almost sad to admit we're related!"

"What are you saying, Raph? You don't think I look drop dead sexy in blue?"

"A big no to that one, Mikey, I definitely don't think ya do. Besides, everybody knows orange and blue clashes somethin' fierce."

"Oh, you're a fashion expert now, huh, Raph? I don't know why I'm surprised though, really seems like your sort of thing to-…ow!" Mikey rubbed his shoulder where Raph had hit him.

"Shuddap, Mikey!"

"Guys, settle down."

Mikey looked behind him to see Leo and Leatherhead approach them. He let his hand fall down to his side again and beamed up at the taller of the two, "LH! You're finally here!"

"Hello, Michelangelo, and yes, I apologize for having missed your ceremony."

"We're totally never going to forgive you for that, you know that right?" Mikey teased his tall friend.

Leatherhead chuckled at this in his deep rumbling voice and stepped forwards to grab both him and Raph into a hug, "Congratulations, my friends, I knew you could do it."

"Well, duh, of course! It's us, LH! We're awesome!" Mikey laughed after they'd been released from the massive hug.

"Not to mention drop dead sexy in these uniforms, right, Mikey?" Raph added with a grin.

Not having expected that comment from his brother Mikey burst into laughter, "Totally right, bro!" He looked over at Leo and his laughter died away. His other brother wasn't laughing or even smiling at all. "Come on, Leo, can't you loosen up for just one night? We're celebrating! How often do we get to do that all together, huh? I mean even dad and uncle Splinter are here!" Mikey pointed at the two where they stood talking to an Utrom.

"Not all of us, Mashimi just left."

"What?" Mikey answered, not sure he had understood correctly, and he felt the smile melt from his face, "Shimi left?"

"Yes, Michelangelo, he and a friend decided to go to Central Park for an event going on there," Leatherhead offered as he looked at Leo.

"Oh," Mikey replied, not used to feeling at a loss of words. He'd been so sure that tonight they'd all be together to celebrate as a family. "He just left like that?"

"I told him to go," Leo answered gruffly.

"Oh," Mikey repeated, feeling a little hurt all the same.

"Well, it's his loss, right, Mikey?" Raph said then and clapped Mikey on the shoulder. Mikey looked at his red masked brother and saw something in his eyes that told him he wasn't the only one disappointed.

"Yeah, totally. He'll regret he left after he hears how much fun we had here!" Mikey agreed, though he didn't really have his heart in it. Already his oldest brother spent so much time away when he was away at school, or hanging out with his school friends to work on homework together, now he had to leave when it involved something from the world his brothers lived in as well?

"Where's Donatello?" Leo suddenly asked.

Blinking Mikey looked at him, then frowned and looked around the room. He actually hadn't seen his brother since they'd gotten here.

"No idea, dude," he answered honestly as he turned in a full circle to look everywhere, "I guess Donnie disappeared on us as well." Mikey didn't even try to hide the disappointment in his voice now.

"Great, just great," Raph growled and Mikey looked at him. "I'm gonna go look for that brainiac and drag him back in here. He probably went back to one of those labs he's so in love with," Raph continued and started to head for the door, "Just because he didn't make the cut doesn't mean he should just split like that!"

A bit worried Mikey started to follow him but was stopped by Leatherhead, "It's alright, Michelangelo, I shall join him in his search."

At this Mikey stayed where he was and watched the two of them leave the room. Finally he looked at Leo. As usual his blue masked brother was silent. Mikey sighed, "Well, this isn't exactly the kind of party I had in mind," he said bitterly.

Surprisingly Leo looked away at this, then down at his hands, before finally meeting his eyes again, "I know, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have encouraged Shimi to leave like that, I'm not even sure why I did that," Leo sighed. He suddenly looked very tired Mikey thought.

"It's not your fault, Leo, I'm sure Shimi wanted to go," Mikey offered, smiling weakly.

Leo shook his head, "He did, but he'd already decided not to go. If I hadn't said anything he'd be here right now."

Mikey bit his lip. It was no secret that Leo was unhappy with Mashimi's social life outside of the Utrom base. His oldest brothers had always been very close, but now their lives seemed to be heading in different directions. Except…"We're still all guardians, Leo, we're going to be spending a lot of time together now, _with_ dad and uncle Splinter even!" Now this was something that could get Mikey excited again.

"Not all of us, not Donnie."

And that bummed Mikey right out again.

"Besides, who's to say we'll even be going outside together? The guardians never take large groups of recruits with them on patrol, it's not safe."

Mikey placed a hand on his forehead and slowly pulled it down over his face, "Way to be pessimistic, Leo, I'm trying to cheer us up here in case you hadn't noticed." Leo's depressing attitude was never easy to break through, but this time Mikey actually felt some resentment. Couldn't his brother at least try to put in some effort here?

"Are you alright, my boys? Where are your brothers?"

Mikey turned to look at Splinter as their uncle joined them, a worried cast to his eyes. Great, now they'd get to depress their uncle as well. This was definitely some party!

"We're fine, uncle Splinter," Mikey answered with a little bow of respect for the old rat, "Raph's looking for Donnie, and Shimi left to go into town or something."

"Yes, Mashimi asked for permission for this earlier. He said he had your leave to do so?" Mikey thought he heard a slight uncertainty in Splinter's voice. Did his uncle really think Mashimi would lie about this?

"Yes, Master Splinter, I told Mashimi to go," Leo replied quietly, his face very serious.

"Ah, alright then."

Mikey wished he could think of something to say that wouldn't reek of lameness to fill the sudden awkward silence with.

"When do we start training tomorrow morning, Master Splinter?" Leo asked then and Mikey looked over at their uncle, hoping he wouldn't give them a time that was unreasonably early.

"Ah, I thought you understood this, my boys. I will no longer be guiding your training-"

"What?" Mikey cut in, trying to recall his uncle ever having told them about this, but a quick glance at Leo showed his older brother was just as surprised. Since their mother's death almost five years ago their uncle Splinter had trained them in the art of ninjitsu practically by himself.

"You will be joining the other guardians now, my boys, and have several masters to learn from, including your own father."

"Dad's going to be teaching us again?" Leo spoke suddenly. Mikey was sure he wasn't the only one who heard the sudden interest in Leo's voice.

Splinter chuckled, "Indeed, Leonardo. And do not think you will be rid of me entirely either, as I am sure I shall encounter you in my classes now and then as well."

It was starting to make sense to Mikey now. His uncle Splinter wasn't trying to tell them he'd never train them again, but that he'd be one of the many others who would be from now on. That made sense as they knew both their father and uncle led some of the trainings here and at some of the other bases.

"But for now I will continue to teach your brother Donatello, until he is ready to join you boys as a guardian."

"Wait, what?" Mikey exclaimed. Splinter did not seem to understand his confusion however, so Mikey took a deep breath and explained, "Are you saying Donnie won't be training with us anymore, uncle Splinter?"

"Of course not, Michelangelo. You boys have now joined the ranks of the guardians, your training shall intensify to teach you what you must know in order to become a contributing member of this team. Your brother Donatello however cannot join you there, he is not ready for this both physically and mentally. His training shall continue in private."

Mikey felt like he'd been hit in the gut. While Splinter's explanation made sense, was even obvious, Mikey hadn't even thought about this. Training was the one thing all five brothers still did together every single day! He looked over at Leo, but he couldn't decipher what his brother was thinking, or even whether this came as a surprise to him as well or if he'd already known.

"Ok, so I guess, well, ok then," Mikey mumbled. He was pretty sure he was looking miserable right about now. It was like everything he tried would backfire on him somehow.

"Do not worry, Michelangelo, I am sure Donatello will join you and your brothers one day. This will only encourage him to train more."

Mikey snorted, "Yeah, and if he doesn't I'll kick his tail 'till he does."

"I shall check the west-end labs, Raphael," Leatherhead said without looking at his turtle companion.

"Then I'll check his bedroom, see ya later, LH," Raph replied, his face one still of anger, though having walked in the company of the gentle giant for a while had helped him cool down a little already.

As they each went in a different direction at a junction Raph increased his pace to a jog, determined to find his missing brother as quickly as possible and drag him back to the party. It annoyed Raph to no end that Donatello had left like he had, without saying anything to any of them. The look on Mikey's face had triggered an anger in Raphael that he did not completely understand, but that look of utter defeat on his youngest brother just wasn't right. It didn't belong there, not on Mikey's face.

Grunting he increased his pace once more as he more or less hurled himself into one of the organic tubes lined up before him, then balled his fists as the tube gently but swiftly sucked him up to neatly deposit the turtle a few floors higher. The moment his feet touched the floor Raphael started to run again, unconsciously pulling his blue uniform straighter. It would take some getting used to but he felt proud to wear it, so for now Raph didn't mind.

Reaching the door that led to Donatello's bedroom he ignored the required courtesy of knocking on the door and simply burst inside.

"Don!" he bellowed, but before the word had left his mouth he knew he was the only turtle in this room.

"Where is he…!" His anger rose again but Raph took a deep breath to steady himself. To be a guardian he would need self control.

From a pocket inside the blue jacket he fished out a cell phone, then quickly dialed.

"…LH? You found him?"

He grunted once more when the reply was negative. "Can't you look for him with your gadgets down there or something then?" He flexed his free hand a few times as he listened.

"…alright…"

A few more deep breaths.

"The dojo? You sure? …Alright, I'll go check…Yeah, see ya."

Tucking the small device away once more he turned on his heel and headed straight towards some more organic tubes at the end of the hallway he was in, jumped inside, and ended up somewhere a few floors down. A few more turns later he saw the doors to the dojo he and his brothers used the most. Ironically it was so close to the party that he could actually make out a few distant voices and laughter.

Pushing the doors open he instantly spotted his purple masked brother. The recognition was mutual.

"Raph? What are you doing here?"

Closing the door behind him Raphael then walked over without a word, his hands turning into fists once more. He only intended to tell his brother off, but once he stood in front of him he found the look of surprise and curiosity on Donatello's face to be infuriating! Did he really think it was just ok to sneak off like that? At their party? Making Mikey look so sad? Before he knew it his fist was flying forwards, straight for his brother's face.

Raphael flew forwards.

Just in time he managed to fling his hands forwards to catch himself from crashing into the floor. Surprised he looked back as he sat on his hands and knees. An equally surprised look met his eyes from Donatello sitting on the floor behind him, having fallen down from dodging the sudden strike.

"What?? Raph, why did you do that?!"

"Why did you leave the party?!" Raph demanded as he got back to his feet, glaring down at his brother. It suddenly dawned on him that Donatello was not wearing his white lab coat. From the corner of his eye he saw something white and turned his head to see the garment lying neatly folded by the wall.

"I just needed a moment to myself! Geez Raph, is that so bad?!"

"You could have mentioned it to someone!" Raph spitted back at him.

Don gave him an incredulous stare back, "What? I've been gone for maybe fifteen minutes, Raph, I'm sure that the celebration will continue for a couple more hours! I was coming back!"

It made sense, yet it didn't.

"Why did you leave?" Raph repeated.

"I just told you," Don sighed, picking himself off of the floor as well now, "I wanted a moment to myself."

Raph extended a hand to help him up, "Why?"

Don pulled his hand back once he stood and glared back now, "I can't just want a moment to myself?"

"No," Raph said, "not while the rest of us are celebrating one of those milestone things because we accomplished something we've been dreaming of since we were little kids!" A clenching of Donatello's jaw suddenly told Raph the real reason.

"Oh, is that's what's bothering ya? But Don, you're not really a ninja, right? I mean, you love to work on- whoa!!" This time Raph had to dodge a sudden fist to the face as his brother lunged forwards with a cry.

"How dare you! How dare you say that, Raphael! I _am_ a ninja! I'm just like the rest of you! I'm _not_ different!" Raph was stumbling backwards now, his eyes wide behind his red mask as he found himself actually challenged to block every blow in time. He tried to say something, but his brother's angry voice wouldn't let him. Suddenly his shell bumped into the wall, the impact muffled by his clothing and he did the only thing he could think of. In one swift movement he lowered himself along the wall, then lunged forwards with a leg to swipe his brother's legs out from under him. He was rewarded with a gasp as Donatello went down. Just to make sure Raph threw himself on top of him to make sure he stayed down.

Both of them were breathing faster now, but neither spoke for a few moments. Then Raph felt his brother's muscles relax.

"You ok?" he asked as he got off of him.

"Yeah," Donatello replied before pushing himself up as well, "Sorry about that, I don't know what-…"

"Yeah, it's ok," Raph cut him off. Both of them sat down on the floor then, facing each other silently. "I shouldn't have said that…" Raph finally spoke up, rubbing his neck with a hand, "I mean, I really didn't think ya cared that much, that's what you're always saying anyways…"

"…I sort of lied.."

"Why?"

Donatello looked away for a few moments before he finally looked back and replied, his voice soft, "Remember when we were kids and having a hard time learning how to wield the katana properly while the others seemed to do so much better?"

How could he forget. "Yeah."

"Remember how you felt back then?"

"…Yeah."

"…That's how I feel now."

Raph hesitated for a moment, "…Well, I guess that makes me the smarter of the two of us then."

The look of surprise at these words nearly made Raph smile.

"Excuse me??"

"Well," Raph continued, raising a hand to casually inspect the back of it, "I was smart enough to ask for help when I thought I was falling behind and didn't like it."

"…Yeah, you made both if us defy father's rules of not training by ourselves in those days if I remember correctly," Donatello said after a moment of silence. But Raph looked at his brother's face and a saw a hint of a smile.

"They never caught us."

Both chuckled at this statement and another stretch of silence followed until Raph broke it once more, "So why didn't you return me the favor, Don? Ya made us all believe ya didn't mind you were falling behind, that ya were happy being an egghead with Leatherhead."

"I was. I am." Don glanced up at him, "Yet I'm not. With every move that took me longer to master because I didn't have the time for it, the further away you guys seemed to move from me."

"We were right there beside ya the whole time."

"I know, Raph, logically I know."

"So? Then what's the problem?"

"Well, I don't really know. I guess when we were kids both of us sucked so it didn't seem weird to help each other, but this time, well, it was just me that sucked."

Raph rolled his eyes. And this was supposed to be his genius brother?

"Who cares, Don?? It's still _us_. Or what, ya suddenly feel you're too good to ask for our help or something?"

"No no! Of course not, Raph! Not that! Never that!"

"Then what?!"

"I don't know! I just want to be a part of you guys! To be one of you! Not…not the one who needs help, but, just…just one of you. I want things to be like they used to be."

Raph nodded silently. He didn't know what to say to this, or at least nothing that wasn't already obvious. Suddenly his cell phone vibrated and Raph grabbed it from inside his uniform's jacket. The little screen said it was Leatherhead.

"Hey LH….yeah, don't worry, I found him…of course…well, duh, LH, what did ya think I was gonna do?...yeah…no, it's alright, just go back to the party and we'll see ya there…yeah…ok, thanks, LH."

Don was looking at him.

"So, shall we go back as well?" Raph suggested. Don didn't answer right away so Raph continued, "Mikey's waiting for us, he was real disappointed you skipped out like you did."

That got Don's attention alright, Raph saw a bit of guilt flash over his brother's face, but he still didn't move.

"Did you know I won't be training with you guys anymore?"

Surprised Raphael opened his mouth to question this, then realized the same thing Mikey had learned a little while earlier from Master Splinter, "'Cause we'll be training with the guardians?" Don simply nodded. Raph lifted a hand and placed it behind his neck, feeling a bit flustered, "Right, I should have seen that one coming."

Donatello looked down at this, his shoulders slumping a bit. Raph stepped closer and placed a hand on his shoulder, "Well, I guess it sucks to be you then." He grinned at the incredulous look this got him, "'Cause now you'll have to somehow free up even more time so we can practice together and get ya into one of these guardian uniforms as quickly as possible!" He was rewarded with a small smile.

"That's the plan Donatello, and I'm sure it won't take much to convince the others to help as well, so don't expect to be able to find a way out of this one."

"Believe me, Raph," Don said with a laugh, "I wouldn't even want to."

Finally Raph managed to get his brother to move towards the door, and after retrieving the white lab coat from the floor they excited the room and headed towards the faint sounds of celebration. At the sound of footsteps behind them both of them halted however to turn around. To both of their surprise they found Mashimi running up to them, a grin on his face. Panting the human teen came to a stop between them, resting a hand on their shoulders.

"I thought ya left?" Raph asked.

"I did," Mashimi panted, "Then I realized I was an idiot and came back."

Raph snorted at this, "Good, then at least we won't have to tell ya this tomorrow morning anymore." This earned him a punch to the shoulder, which he returned with a shove towards the party's entrance.

"Get in there, ya two, Mikey an' Leo are waiting for us."

A/N: And now the story has more or less reached the point where the 2k3 toon started, in case you were wondering timeline-wise ^_^


	17. The Letter

Curiously Mikey watched his father Yoshi storm through the hallway ahead of him, turn around a corner and disappear from his view. Turning his head the turtle shared a confused look with Mashimi. The two brothers had been on their way to ask their father permission to go outside this night, but before they had reached his quarters the man had come outside and without seeming to notice his two sons, left in an obvious hurry.

"What was that about?" Mikey asked.

"That was weird, I hope everything is alright," Mashimi replied a bit worried, then pulled Mikey along.

"Huh? Hey, you don't really wanna go inside now, do you?" Mikey asked in alarm when it became obvious his human brother meant to enter their father's quarters in his absence.

"He's never said we're not allowed to, and we used to go into his bedroom all the time when we lived in the house," Mashimi reasoned as he tried the door and found it was unlocked.

"Uh, yeah, but we were little kids and that was when mom…well, it wasn't just his bedroom then either," Mikey rambled as he followed his brother inside, "So they wouldn't have minded us so much back then, and who knows what sort of stuff he keeps in here! We shouldn't be here by ourselves, Shimi!"

"Oh shut up, Mikey, we're just gonna wait till he gets back, that's all."

Mikey wasn't convinced. His brother had spoken while quickly surveying the room, and then walked over to a small table holding several items and papers that looked important.

"Put that down!" Mikey hissed in alarm as Mashimi held up a stack of papers to see what was written on them.

"Calm down, Mikey!" the human boy admonished him, "It's just the patrol rosters! This is what we came here for anyway, might as well check who is going outside tonight."

Mikey was feeling increasingly uncomfortable and found himself shifting from foot to foot, his hands grabbing the blue fabric of his pants. Oh this could not be good. And then to think his brothers always called _him_ the troublemaker!

"Just put it down, Shimi!"

"Alright, alright, calm down, Mikey. Hey, what's that?"

Mikey groaned as his brother spotted a piece of paper lying on their father's bed. It looked a little yellowish and not like the regular papers used around here. Most of the work was done digitally anyway, it was only oldies like his father and uncle Splinter that still preferred to use paper now and then.

When Mashimi didn't respond to Mikey's continued hushed calls the turtle got curious. His brother seemed absorbed in whatever was written on the piece of paper.

"What is it?" Mikey asked, but was ignored once more, so the blue clad turtle moved over to stand beside his taller brother and glanced at the paper. It seemed to be a handwritten letter.

_My Dear Daughter,_

_I must admit this before I go any further: I did not appreciate it when you sent me all those letters, nor when you did not stop sending them even when I ignored you all those years. My own disappointment and hurt did not let me see reason and clouded my judgment as well as my love for you children. Yoshi had defied me and left to train with the Utroms, I was furious as well as disappointed! But what may have hurt even more is that you, Tang Shen, decided to follow him instead of stay here with me. Two of my adopted children turned against me. Or so I felt at the time. Your letters only seemed a constant reminder of this failure._

_But now that it has been years since I last received one of these letters from you, I find myself wondering why I could not see that you had your own path to follow, regardless of what I still think would be better for you two. I also find myself thinking that maybe you have forgotten about me, and this makes me feel sad I admit. I miss your letters, even if I did not read them at the time. I have read them now, because I did save them._

_I am happy to learn you two have had a child, a son named after your brother Mashimi. Your brother's death was a great blow to us all, even more so as he died betraying our family. I find I can feel some peace about his death knowing you two have forgiven him enough to name your child after him. I wish I could do the same, but I can not. I suppose it was no secret I favored Yoshi over Mashimi, but what I never told any of you was that I sometimes regretted having taken Mashimi into my home. It is a horrible thing for a father to say, I know this, but there was a darkness in his heart I did not like. Now we know what this darkness has led him to do and I wonder if I could have prevented this had I simply refused to take him into my home and teach him as my son._

_But enough of this._

_You have been kind enough to keep me updated on your lives in your new home, your son and the children you adopted, and thus given me a chance to forgive you for leaving me like you did. I was a stubborn old man and did not do so. Now I write this to ask for your forgiveness instead, Tang Shen. I let my own pain over the loss of all my children be a reason to refuse to accept your extended hand in peace, and I was a fool for doing so. I wish to speak to my remaining children again, get to know my grandchildren. So I beg you Tang Shen, please forgive an old fool man, and lift my heart once more with one of your letters. And then I shall answer it this time, this I promise._

_The Ancient One_

"Huh? Who?"

Mashimi, who had already finished reading it and was now frowning did not respond right away.

"Shimi, do you know who this Ancient One guy is?"

Finally his brother seemed to remember there were two of them in the room as he turned to look at Mikey, "No, I've never heard of him."

"He uh, he called mom and dad his children…? Are they, are they like brother and sister…?" Mikey asked hesitantly, not really knowing whether to laugh of feel sick at the notion.

"I…I don't know…"

Mikey saw that Mashimi seemed as troubled about the content of this letter as he himself felt.

"I always thought that the Mashimi you were named after was dad's brother, and that they, you know, liked him. But here it says he betrayed the family…?"

Mashimi shook his head, "…I don't know Mikey, I've never heard about any of this either…"

"Maybe, maybe we shouldn't be here?" Mikey suggested again delicately, then felt relief when his brother quietly nodded his head. He didn't put the letter down however, and instead folded it up to put it in his pocket.

"Shimi! You can't do that!" Mikey called out, shocked.

"I think the others should see this, Mikey, there's something about our family that we're not aware of, and I think we all deserve to know this."

"But can't we just ask dad?! We can't just, like, steal this letter!"

"Technically it's not his either. It's addressed to mom."

And with that Mashimi left the room, leaving Mikey no other option but to follow him while yabbering objection after objection, flailing his hands about while doing so. It didn't work however and Mashimi didn't slow his pace as he went straight back to their own quarters.

Sighing Mikey watched his brother give a quick knock on one of the doors before opening it without waiting for an answer, "Leo. Dojo. Now."

There was something funny about the bewildered look on Leonardo's face as he came outside and cast a questioning look at Mikey.

"Don't ask, dude, just don't ask, you're not gonna want to know once you do," Mikey told him as the two hurried to catch up with Mashimi, who had not waited for Leonardo to join them before marching off again.

It did not take the three brothers very long to reach the dojo where Donatello and Raphael were practicing together. The two turtles looked up surprised at the unexpected invasion. Both of them only wore their masks, as was their norm now when training in Donatello's presence. It had only been a month since four of the five brothers had been elevated to a new status among the Utrom guardians, but they were doing everything they could to hurry up the process that would complete the set and allow all five of them to wear the blue uniform.

"What's up?" Raph asked when the three entered without much of an explanation.

"Is something wrong?" Donatello asked.

"Sorta," Mikey offered as Mashimi fished the letter out of his pocket, "We saw dad leave his room looking upset and when we looked inside we-"

"You what?!"

Mikey winced and glanced at Leo. He should have thought this through and let Mashimi do the talking.

"Ehm, we were just gonna wait for him to come back, but eh, well…"

"Never mind that, Leo, you guys have got to read this," Mashimi cut in before Leonardo could object any further, obviously not even feeling the slightest bit of guilt at having intruded where they shouldn't have.

Raphael and Donatello also moved closer to get a look and moved to stand on either side of Leonardo as he took the piece of paper from Mashimi to read it. Mikey waited in nervous silence as the three read the content, while wondering if maybe their father had already returned to his quarters and was now looking for his missing letter. This could not end well, he was sure of it. But even so, what did this letter mean? Who was this ancient one? Why had they never heard of this person if he was related to them? Well, so to speak anyway. Mikey shook his head, once more reminded they had a complicated family tree indeed.

"Who's this Ancient guy?" Raphael asked, having finished last and was now frowning at the yellowish piece of paper.

Leonardo, who had stood unmoving in silence so far, now shoved the paper at Donatello and walked closer to Mashimi, frowning as he did so. "You know about any of this, Mashimi?"

The oldest brother shook his head, "Not a clue. But it's obvious this guy knows mom and dad, and us as well apparently, we're all mentioned."

"He's uh, mom, dad and uncle Mashimi's dad?" Raph questioned, the look on his face nearly sending Mikey into a giggle fit.

"It clearly says they're adopted, Raph," Don pointed out reasonably.

"Dude!" Mikey exclaimed, "How does that change anything? We're adopted and we'd never go for Mashimi or something! Gross! Uber gross even!"

"Mikey!"

"What did I say?" Mikey responded defensively to the human boy who was looking shocked himself.

"Shut up!"

"Could we maybe skip this, guys?" Donatello asked with a groan.

"I want to know why we were never told uncle Mashimi betrayed our family," Leo spoke up then, his voice very quiet compared to the previous shouts by the others.

"Me too actually," the human boy agreed, "I always thought that…that it was an honor to carry his name…"

Mikey bit his lower lip, wanting to say something comforting, but nothing came to mind. Well, nothing useful anyway, he doubted his brother would like to hear that some bad guys were still pretty awesome. In comic books anyway.

"Leonardo?"

Mikey thought he would have jumped out of his shell just then. All five teenagers jerked their heads towards the entrance from where the voice had come.

Slowly their uncle Splinter walked inside, noticing the agitated state they were in.

"I came looking for you Leonardo, but did not find you in your quarters as agreed."

"I'm sorry, sensei, I forgot about our meeting," Leo responded with a bow, but seemed at a loss at how to continue and glanced at the piece of paper still in Donatello's hands.

"What is wrong, my boys?"

Mikey saw Mashimi open his mouth, but nothing came out. Taking a deep breath Mikey spoke up instead, "We, ehm, sorta found something, uncle Splinter," he said, belatedly realizing they were standing in the dojo, and by their own rules should have referred to him as master instead. Donatello hesitantly moved his hand to show Splinter what Mikey was talking about.

Curiously the rat moved closer and took the piece of paper from the turtle. His brow furrowed into a frown as he started to read it, but very soon his eyes flew open wider and Splinter gasped, his hold on the paper increasing, "The Ancient One!"

Mikey shared a look with his brothers; at least somebody in this room seemed to know who this was.

"Where did you find this?!" Splinter demanded, his voice rough.

Mikey clenched his teeth together, no way would he be the one to explain this one, Splinter looked furious. He moved his eyes to stare at Mashimi, who for the first time seemed nervous about what they had done.

"We, I mean, I found it in father's quarters, master Splinter," the human boy said.

To Mikey's surprise Splinter did not respond with outrage as he had expected, instead the rat seemed to turn inwards for a moment, considering something.

"Very well. Keep this to yourself, boys, I need to speak to your father."

"But Master Splinter-" Raph started to protest, but was quieted when his uncle held up a hand.

"Not now, Raphael. Leonardo, I am sorry, but I must postpone our meeting for another time."

And with that the rat hurriedly left the room, leaving the five brothers staring after him.

"I've got a bad feeling about this," Raphael muttered.


	18. First Separation

First Separation

"You're just going to leave us like this?!"

Leonardo winced at the loud voice and tone of hurt in it, even if he agreed with his brother. He was standing behind Mashimi in their father's room, trying to get some answers about the letter they found yesterday. It had been written by someone called the Ancient One who claimed to be the one who had raised their parents.

"You can't do this, dad! Not like this! You have to give us some answers first!"

Leo once more winced as his brother continued to shout at their father. All this time the man had simply ignored them and simply packed some of his clothes and belongings into a bag, not even looking at them. If Leonardo hadn't been watching his face he would have thought they were invisible to him.

"Please, father, talk to me! Why are you leaving?!" Mashimi continued, changing his voice to a pleading one this time.

Leonardo held his breath as his father's hands stopped moving then.

"Mashimi, Leonardo, this is not the time for explanations, I do not have them," he spoke softly. Leo thought he was trying to control his anger as he did so. Was he angry at them?

"But father," Mashimi continued eagerly now that he had finally been acknowledged, "Please, at least tell us where you are going, who is this Ancient One?"

For a moment it looked like they would be ignored again, but then Yoshi spoke, "He raised me, he is my father." With that their father turned away again to take something out of a cabinet to pack as well.

"Why didn't we know he existed?" Mashimi asked.

Yoshi turned to look back at the human boy and even though Leonardo wasn't the focal point of his gaze he still felt a shiver go down his spine.

"He did not deserve to be mentioned."

"What?"

"I am going now, direct your questions to your uncle." And with that Yoshi closed his bag and threw it over a shoulder, fully intending to walk past them to the door. Almost as if on cue both Leo and Mashimi moved to block his way though, surprising both their father and themselves at doing so.

"Where are you going, father?" Mashimi repeated.

"Let us come with you, father," Leonardo added, speaking for the first time since they had come to their father's quarters.

"Yes, if he's family, then we should get to know-" Mashimi eagerly continued, but was cut off abruptly when their father angrily held up his hand.

"You will stay _here_!"

Leonardo actually took a step back at the anger in Yoshi's voice. Mashimi fell silent as well, his eyes large as he looked back at his father. They both watched the man in front of them close his eyes and take a deep breath.

"I'm sorry, my sons, I should not have spoken to you like that," Yoshi finally said as he reopened his eyes. "I do not wish for you to get involved in this. My father and I had a falling out when I came here with the Utroms. We did not agree on certain aspects of my life. I do not want this to affect you as well, my sons. You will remain here, out of his influence."

Leonardo and Mashimi shared a confused look at this.

"I have no wish to go any further into this, my sons, but I must leave now if I want to catch my plane."

"You're going to Japan, then?" Mashimi asked hesitantly.

"I will go and seek out my father and former master and see what he wants, if he's changed as he claims. He must also be made aware of…of your mother's fate. I must do this alone." With that Yoshi moved forwards once more and the boys moved aside to let him pass unchallenged. Silently they watched him walk through the door and disappear.

* * *

Later that day Raphael sat down on Leonardo's bed, curiosity making him keep quiet, though only barely. Next to him Michelangelo sat down on the bed as well, obviously going through a lot of effort to keep quiet and wait to hear what their brother had to tell them. As if purposely trying to crank up the tension even more Leonardo walked back to the door of his quarters and double checked if it was securely closed. Raph held his tongue by clenching his teeth for a moment. He'd been the one to close the door.

"Ok, Leo, spit it out already, why are we here??" Mikey blurted out at last, "We have to leave on patrol in less than half an hour!"

The turtle turned back towards his sitting brothers and turned the only seat in the room to face them before sitting down on it. Raph felt an irrational moment of wanting to strangle him if he didn't start talking soon.

"I talked to Splinter earlier today and he has some instructions for us. It's serious."

"What instruction? And why aren't Shimi and Don here with us?" Raph asked, then frowned when Leo looked away for a moment. Something odd started to turn in the pit of his stomach. This really was serious then.

"Father wants to take out the Shredder."

Raph and Mikey shared a quick surprised look but didn't interrupt.

"It's pretty much as we suspected all along," Leo continued, his voice kept low and eerily emotionless, "He's been keeping track of mom's murderer all this time, trying to find a way to get to him."

Raph sensed more than saw Mikey shift a little, probably swallowing some kind of question.

"But the Utroms are making it hard for him-"

"The Utroms?" Raph spoke up, cutting Leonardo off, "What do you mean?"

"Yeah, they're on our side! And didn't Leatherhead tell us that the Shredder is as much their enemy as he is dad's?" Mikey chimed in.

"Yeah, but they're worried dad's personal feelings will cloud his judgment and put him in danger. Uncle Splinter agrees with them."

"So what does he want us to do?" Mikey asked.

"Yeah, because I happen to agree with dad: mom's murderer needs to be taken down, preferably through a slow and painful death," Raph added in a growl.

Leonardo stood up from his chair rather abruptly, making both Raph and Mikey raise their head to look up at the now pacing turtle.

"So do I, Raph, and so does uncle Splinter. We all want him dead, but dad's been reckless, careless about his own safety." Leonardo spun around and looked at his brothers. Raph felt a shiver crawl up his arms.

"Master Splinter wants us to increase our training, take extra time to take over dad's surveillance duties, and once he comes back home, stand by him when he goes to confront the Shredder."

Raph started to grin and put his hands on the hilts of his sai, "That's more like it…" he started to agree when Mikey interrupted him.

"What about Mashimi and Don?"

"Don's not ready yet, uncle Splinter doesn't want him to get involved. And Mashimi…" Leo slowly walked back to his chair and sat down again, though he kept his gaze lowered as he continued talking, "Dad and uncle Splinter don't want him involved yet either."

"Why?" Raph asked, feeling very confused. While he didn't completely agree about Don not being ready yet, at least that made some sense. Mashimi however was the star pupil, there was no reason to keep him out of this.

"Because of his life outside of the Utrom Base," Leo replied, still keeping his eyes fixed on the floor, "It's…it's too valuable. They don't want him getting too distracted so he can finish high school and get some diplomas."

"Human diplomas you mean," Raph said slowly, frowning again.

"That sort of makes sense, he could have a life outside of…you know…like-"

"We get it, Mikey," Raph snarled without taking his eyes off of Leonardo, "So that's it? Shimi gets special treatment because he's human?"

"No, of course not, but we can do this without him," Leo answered abruptly, finally raising his eyes to meet Raph's. There were unspoken words in them that made Raph lean back a little. Leo continued, "Once dad get's back Mashimi can join us, and hopefully so will Don. Uncle Splinter said he'll increase his training to make up for the time lost practicing with us."

"Wait, what? What do you mean?" Raph asked surprised, "We're not practicing with Don anymore?"

"No, we need to use that time to scout outside, we don't have that many other opportunities without the Utroms realizing we're continuing dad's work. They may want to stop us if they find out."

"So, what do we tell Donnie?" Mikey asked after a few moments of silence.

"We don't tell him anything. Not yet. It's too dangerous."

"And Shimi?" Raph asked.

"Same. He's away often enough not to notice we're changing our routine a bit anyway."

Raph thought that sounded awfully bitter, even for Leo.

"So…it's just the three of us?" Mikey asked hesitantly, looking from one brother to the other and back.

"And uncle Splinter when he can get away," Leo answered, "We're just doing the preliminary work after all, we're not moving in till father comes back. Then we'll join him and together we'll bring justice to mom's murderer."

And that sounded a lot more bloodthirsty than Raph and Mikey were used to hearing from their brother. The two shared a silent look and Raph tried to judge Mikey's thoughts on this while putting his own in order. He didn't like some aspects of this new plan, but at the same time he really wanted to go after this Shredder. Regardless of how the Utroms wanted to take care of this threat, Raph wanted him dead. But he didn't want to exclude Mashimi and Donatello, nor did he want to lie to them.

…

It would keep them safe however.

Mikey nodded at him then, as if he had read his thoughts. Raph nodded back, "Let's do this then."

* * *

Donatello quickly ducked to avoid a katana flying over his head, then shifted his body to do the same with a second katana coming from the left. Panting heavily he tried to remain focused on his opponent as he kept a tight grip on his bo and moved to swing the weapon at an angle and block another swipe at him.

"Good, good, you must react quickly!" Master Splinter called out as he side stepped an attack from the bo and answered it with two fast swings with the katana he held in either hand, "Keep track of both weapons, and remember that when facing more than one opponent it could be even more than just two you must be aware of at all times!"

Donatello opened his mouth to answer but found himself too busy avoiding a sudden rapid attack that forced him to flip backwards to keep from getting hit, and only gave a short grunt to indicate he had heard Splinter. It didn't really help him however as no matter how fast he managed to avoid a hit, another attack was already on it's way. It was like Splinter was wielding half a dozen katana instead of just two! Taking a deep breath the turtle clenched his teeth together and attempted an attack of his own, only to find himself swept off his feet. He managed a startled yelp before he hit the ground with a grunt.

"Even when attacking you must keep up your defenses, Donatello."

"Yes, master Splinter," Don groaned as he got back up at his feet and resumed a ready stance. And then to think he had fully intended to question master Splinter about his father's unexpected and sudden departure while practicing this evening, he could barely keep up as it was without adding an interview into the mix! He'd promised his brothers to try and get some answers out of Splinter however, as they all had patrolling duties with the other guardians this night.

Throwing up his bo to block a swing and then quickly tilting it to catch the other blade as well he took a deep breath, "Master Splinter, who is- ah!" he swallowed as Splinter made a jabbing move at him with one sword, then somersaulted over him to swipe at him with the other. "…who is the Ancient one?" He made a sloppy block that would have lost him a finger had Splinter not halted his movement right before touching him. Donatello froze as he took in the sight of the blade nearly chopping off one of his limbs and swallowed again.

"Concentrate, Donatello, if you purposely distract yourself during a battle it'll only make it that much easier for your opponent to defeat you," Splinter said as he slowly lifted the katana away from the turtle's hand on the bo.

The turtle nodded, though he felt the comment was a bit uncalled for. "Easier" to kill him? Surely Splinter wasn't trying to imply Donatello's performance was that bad?

"Continue."

For a moment Donatello hesitated, wondering if he should repeat the question as he'd gotten no reply, but before that thought could go very far he found himself completely distracted trying to keep up with Splinter. If the rat hadn't pulled his punches every now and then Donatello would have thought he was trying to kill him for real. Never before had Splinter pushed him this hard, nor given so little advice while raining blow after blow on him. The fact that Splinter hadn't drawn any blood from him was either pure luck, or just another clue that the rat wasn't really trying to kill him, even if at the moment it sure felt like it for Donatello.

It was just a matter of seconds before he found himself on the floor once more. Panting heavily now he didn't think he could get back up just now and looked at Splinter as he walked over, both katana still at the ready. Don softly groaned as he realized his fall didn't indicate a quick break and that Splinter meant for him to defend himself even while down on the ground. Thankfully the turtle's hands got the message right on time and threw up his bo to block the double attack coming down on him. Clenching his teeth together the turtle felt the muscles in his arms strain as he pushed his bo up, or tried to anyway. That rat was strong! Quickly he rolled and used a leg to swipe at Splinter. The rat easily jumped out of the way, but the movement took the pressure off of Don's bo and the turtle managed to completely roll out of Splinter's range long enough to painfully lift himself back up to his feet and catch Splinter's next attack just in time to avoid another trip to the floor. For a moment he found himself locked with Splinter, their weapons unmoving as they each tried to get the upper hand over the other, and their eyes met. Startled Donatello saw something unfamiliar in his uncle's eyes, something raw and dangerous, almost animal like.

"Enough!"

It took ninja reflexes not to topple over as Splinter suddenly stepped back, sheathing the swords on his back. Don stood there staring at him, slowly lowering his bo until one end of the weapon touched the ground, he considered leaning on it but decided his panting was probably bad enough right now without adding some more hints that he was completely exhausted.

"You have been distracted all evening, you cannot practice if you're not willing to devote yourself!"

Donatello winced at the tone, but nodded anyway, "I know, I'm sorry master Splinter."

"We can stop right now and continue some other time because it is only practice, but you must treat me as a real threat if you are ever going to get an idea of what it would be like to face real danger, where your opponent will not let you rest or allow you another try if you fumble on your first," Splinter continued as he started to pace back and forth, avoiding eye contact. Donatello watched the rat's tail swing restlessly.

"I can tell you have questions, but you must have the discipline to wait until you have the time to ask them, Donatello. Your curiosity comes second to your safety!"

Even though he wasn't entirely sure why, Donatello felt a little guilty. Was Splinter trying to make him understand something? When nothing else came the turtle hesitantly took a deep breath in an attempt to stop his panting, "So…is it ok if I ask some questions now, master Splinter…?"

The rat shook his head and sighed, then gave a single nod and turned to face the turtle.

"Ehm, well, we'd like to know who this Ancient One is, and father said we should ask you. We already know he's his father, and he said he was his master as well, but…-" Donatello stopped when Splinter raised a hand.

"I understand the question. Yes, he is the one who raised your father, and your mother as well. He took them and your uncle Mashimi in as children, and raised them as own, and trained them as his students."

Splinter walked over to one of the walls and motioned for Donatello to follow him, "He is called the Ancient One not only because of his age, but also for his knowledge of the spirit world." Silently Donatello followed and sat down on the floor at Splinter's indication.

"Some time before Yoshi and Tang Shen came to this country your father met the Utroms, and after some events he and Mashimi were invited to train with them. The Ancient One was not pleased with this."

"Why?" Donatello asked.

Splinter shook his head, "That is too complicated to explain, but suffice it to say that he suspected Yoshi had a different destiny, one that did not include the Utroms, and he tried everything he could to convince Yoshi this was the truth." Splinter sighed, "Your father on the other hand did not share the Ancient One's view on this and he and Mashimi continued to train with the Utroms, fully intending to join the guardian ranks, which they eventually did."

"What did the Ancient One do then?"

"He was furious at first, but there wasn't much he could do about it as Yoshi and Mashimi had moved out of his house by then and only visited now and then, mostly to see Tang Shen." Splinter voice shifted a little as he said her name and Donatello held his breath, but he didn't continue.

"What happened next, uncle Splinter?"

"…It was no secret that Yoshi and Tang Shen were in love, nor was it a secret that Mashimi loved her as well. When Yoshi excelled with the Utroms and got promotion after promotion Mashimi's jealousy of his brother grew. Until eventually his hatred outgrew his love for his brother."

Donatello wasn't sure he liked where this story was going.

" He planned to kill first your mother, then your father," Splinter continued, his voice pained and soft, "But Yoshi found out by accident. He caught up with Mashimi and the two fought, but Yoshi was unwilling to hurt his brother and so could not stop him from escaping. What happened next has scarred our family forever…"

"Did…did he kill Mashimi?"

"No, he didn't. But as far as your father is concerned he might as well have. Mashimi had apparently made contact with the Utrom's enemies and in exchange for their location received aid to kill Yoshi."

Donatello gasped at this, his mind slightly reeling at this information overload. For as long as he could remember he had thought his uncle Mashimi had been a loved and honored family member, not a betraying murderer!

"I suppose he recognized the fact that in a fair fight Yoshi would easily beat him and so arranged for an ambush instead. He lured Yoshi to the enemy's headquarters where your father was outnumbered. But his superior fighting skills impressed the one in charge, and instead of honoring his promise to Mashimi to kill Yoshi, their leader instead offered him a place in his own organization. When Mashimi tried to object to this he was killed with a simple command to take him out, but not before telling Yoshi he was sorry." Splinter sighed, "Yoshi fought his way out, collected your mother and myself from the Ancient One's home, and left with the Utroms to this country."

Donatello blinked at this rushed ending, "What? Wait, that's it?"

"Do you not think that is enough?"

Embarrassed Donatello bowed his head, "No, that is not what I meant master Splinter, but what about the Ancient One? What happened to him?"

Splinter shook his head, "He tried to make them stay, but when it became clear they would not, he accused Yoshi of abandoning his master, his training and his destiny. Their argument was not a pleasant one, my memories are vague from my time before the mutation, but I clearly remember the raised voices and tension from that day. They did not part on friendly terms, and never spoke again."

"Except for mom, sending him those letters."

"Yes, I suppose so," Splinter replied, his face thoughtful, "I never knew she did that, neither did your father."

"Maybe she wanted him and dad to make up or something."

Splinter gave him a sad smile, "She always was an optimist."

Don, opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off by Splinter drawing his weapons again, "Come Donatello, enough questions, let us see if you can focus now!" And with that the turtle's thoughts on the Ancient One and his mother were banished to the back of his mind as he threw up his bo, determined not to let himself be distracted.

* * *

A/N: Slightly longer chapter to make up for the last short one! Sorry I took such a long break from updating btw, real life demanded attention once more, it's so needy. Anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter; I had some trouble making the different parts flow with each other ^_^;


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